SHAH ALAM: The latest round of the Selangor E-Bazar campaign - the Selangor E-Bazar Raya Campaign – held from April 15 until May 29, 2021 has recorded a whopping RM954 million in ripple effect to the state economy which includes RM65 million in direct sales.
The Selangor government said it had channelled RM2 million in the form of vouchers for the Selangor E-Bazar Raya Campaign that onboarded 22,049 new e-merchants and benefitted a total of 134,025 e-merchants.
This is 76 per cent higher than the initial target of 12,500 new e-merchants which were expected to be onboarded, demonstrating that more SMEs have benefitted from the campaign.
Assisting SMEs
During the Movement Control Order (MCO), the Selangor E-Bazar Raya Campaign ensured that Selangor sellers were the top choice for consumers when it came to fulfilling their supplies and needs such as food, furniture, and sports equipment.
The campaign also assisted SMEs to generate sales while assisting consumers to enjoy a moderate festive season.
Most importantly, it is evident how e-commerce has been embedded into daily shopping patterns. For example, peanut butter was one of the top ten most bought items, demonstrating how consumers were even buying food spread online.
The campaign was jointly coordinated by Invest Selangor and the Selangor Information Technology and Digital Economy Corporation (Sidec) in collaboration with Shopee and Lazada – two of the most popular online sales platforms in Malaysia.
Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the campaign has once again proved that those who digitalised their businesses had obtained higher sales than those who did not do so.
"The latest results also have shown an increase of 163 per cent in direct sales and a 139 per cent increase in ripple effect to the Selangor economy compared to the initial target set," said Amirudin.
He said Selangor took pride to be the first state government to launch e-commerce voucher initiatives in assisting state SMEs to weather the Covid-19 storm.
"We have organised 4 E-Bazar campaigns, namely E-Bazar Raya 2020, E-Bazar 11.11 Mega Sales, E-Bazar CNY 2021 and E-Bazar Raya 2021.
"With the overall investment of RM7 million by the state government, the four campaigns have generated RM144.7 million in direct sales, creating a ripple effect of RM2.95 billion to the state economy.
"A total of 294,119 sellers, inclusive of 74,837 new sellers, have benefitted from the campaigns. This has allowed the state economy to continue to move while creating alternative sales channels for local businesses to survive, especially under the current Covid-19 lockdown," said Amirudin.
Meanwhile, Selangor executive councillor for Industry and Trade Datuk Teng Chang Khim said the state government was glad that more new e-merchants were onboarded through the latest round of the campaign.
Teng also noted that the results of the Selangor E-Bazar Raya campaign demonstrate how e-commerce has become the main avenue in helping SMEs to stay afloat and ensuring the economy remains open while keeping everybody safe at home during these unprecedented times.
"Under the lockdown, we are forced to embrace the low-touch economy. While we may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel through the vaccination drive, e-commerce provides a practical and safe avenue for trading," Teng said.
Among the most popular sales categories for the campaign were Home and Living, Health and Beauty, Groceries and Pets, as well as Automotive.
"There is an increased demand for online shopping for food, coinciding with the increase of Covid-19 new cases in May.
"Due to the incr
Demand for automotive care
There was also an increased demand in automotive care which was most likely due to people having to service and maintain their cars by themselves.
On the other hand, Lazada Malaysia's chief operations officer, Darren Rajaratnam, said the key to economic recovery lies in the digitalisation and growth of SMEs.
"We are pleased to once again partner with the Selangor Government to empower more SMEs to take the digital leap.
"This not only contributed to the economy of the state but also proves that digitalisation is a critical advantage and crucial to the sustainability of SMEs.
"We will continue to focus on lowering the barriers to entry for local SMEs through our stimulus packages and programmes and supporting the local business community on their digital journey," he said.
Meanwhile, Shopee pledged its support to the campaign by converting the RM1 million funded by the state into vouchers for the state's sellers.
To ensure the campaign received enough exposure, Shopee topped up with a matching contribution in the form of marketing support in-app and via social media, Shopee Live and more.
Shopee also further supported the campaign with more vouchers that benefitted sellers of the state as well as buyers.
These efforts helped drive sales for the local sellers by increasing the Average Basket Size of buyers to RM147.
Shopee's Senior Manager (Marketing) Kenneth Soh said, "We are glad to have been able to assist the Selangor government once again in digitising the state's economy through their Hari Raya campaign, which saw impressive results.
"However, the job does not end here. While the campaign has ended, we will keep offering Shopee University classes for the new sellers for them to continue upskilling themselves.
"Our aim is to help these new sellers be self-sustainable in the long run."
Meanwhile, in ensuring that more SMEs and traditional brick and mortar businesses get exposed to e-commerce during the lockdown, Amirudin announced the launch of e-commerce learning platform, Sidec TV.
The videos collected are the compilation of recordings from hundreds of e-commerce classes organised by Sidec since its inception in 2015.
For the purpose of promoting the Sidec TV platform, Sidec has collaborated with Media Selangor to spread the word about the videos which will be accessible to the public soon.