Today is the last day of 2013 and we thought it will be nice if we compile a list on top e-commerce events or milestones of the year, with focus on Malaysia.
Today is the last day of 2013 and we thought it will be nice if we compile a list on top e-commerce events or milestones of the year, with focus on Malaysia.
What about you? Which are the most significant events that have happened in local e-commerce industry? Do share your thoughts with us in the comment area.
Tesco Online Shopping launched in Malaysia, Thailand
The British multinational grocery giant, Tesco has launched its online shopping service here, and in Thailand too. It is a pure COD model, and RM 20 coupon has been distributed broadly to encourage customers placing order online. Read our shopping experience with Tesco with focus on its fulfillment setup.
Read also: Is Sumitomo's Soukai Drug venturing into Malaysia, and challenge Tesco?
New regulations to protect online shoppers
Do you know that starting from 1 July 2013, all businesses and services conducted online will have to comply with the Consumer Protection (Electronic Trade Transactions) Regulations 2012?
However, how many of the e-commerce sites in Malaysia have complied to the regulations?
Maybank launches Maybank2u Pay targeting blogshops
Maybank has launched Maybank2u Pay designed to ease accepting payment for blogshops, which targets to sign up at least 5% of the 3,000 blogshops in Malaysia by end of 2013. We have reported back in June that Maybank2u Pay has already signed-up 25% of blogshops.
Latest check at the time of writing, there are now 1,313 blogshops (44%) using Maybank2u Pay.
Read also: Which online payment methods are popular in Malaysia?
Shopify enters Southeast Asia with SingTel
SingTel, a major Singapore-based telecomm conglomerate, has announced in June that it will offer Shopify’s e-commerce solution in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and India.
Interestingly, the Canada-based e-commerce company has raised $100 million from existing investors, with the goal to help drop the ‘e’ and embrace all kinds of commerce, for all kinds of merchants, in all kinds of settings.
Lazada launches Marketplace business in Southeast Asia
Being a typical B2C business initially, Lazada launches its marketplace offering in 5 Southeast Asia countries - Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam.
Read our in-depth analysis earlier on Lazada Marketplace for being more like Amazon, or Rakuten?
Read also: Interview with Igor Pezzilli, CEO of Lazada Malaysia
PayPal increases fee, and extends Seller Protection to APAC
Good news: Starting 11th Oct 2013, PayPal will extend its Seller Protection to merchants reside in Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Read on how PayPal Seller Protection works (or refer our infographic).
Bad news: All good things come at a price, there is an increase of 50 bps of PayPal base rate, effective since 10th September 2013. See the before and after PayPal's transaction fees.
Read also: Audrey Ottevanger's response on the price hike, and why only 50% of top e-commerce sites in Malaysia accepting PayPal
Cyber Monday, Black Friday heated up in Malaysia
For the first time ever, we have seen Cyber Monday and Black Friday campaigns promoted aggressively here by top e-commerce sites like Lazada, Zalora, Rakuten, Lelong.my, MPH Online etc. Read our write-up here which also includes a special report on the inaugural Thailand Online Mega Sale organized by Thailand E-Commerce Association.
We have also wrote about aggressive sale campaign which leads to online price war, and how downtime of local banking site crashed Lelong.my Black Friday party?
LINE Shopping launched in Indonesia and Malaysia
We have previously reported LINE's potential in the messaging app battle and also mobile commerce.
LINE has since launched LINE Shopping in Indonesia, Malaysia (and Thailand too) which makes it even more interesting especially for e-commerce businesses.
Putting LINE's intent on e-commerce aside, can LINE develops itself to become one of the huge advertising media after Google and Facebook?
Conclusion
There are also some notable developments on regional level which we don't cover above, like Lazada, Zalora, Reebonz securing new funding respectively.
Another one being Taobao launching its regional site dedicated to Southeast Asia.
In summary, 2013 has seen many interesting developments in e-commerce industry here, while you can roll back the years (all the way back to 1998) to see how e-commerce history unfold in Malaysia.
Last but not least, we would like to wish all ecommerce.milo readers a very happy and prosperous year 2014!
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