Online shopping – so many choices, so exciting! But wait, how come no one speaks your language when you need help tracking your purchases? You hardly slept a wink 3 nights in a row thinking of that super cute phone cover you saw on Tabao, and it comes as a disappointment? As you curse and lament on how you wish you had learned that extra language in school, your greatest wish would be to have a 24/7 customer support helping you communicate.
Here’s the God-sent solution to your conundrum, SGshop Ecommerce Sdn. Bhd. (“SGshop”). They speak for you, to you (in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin!), and even take care of the shipping for you if you so wish. Equating e-commerce to public service in their management philosophy, SGshop makes customer service and your shopping experience their point of priority. Their website enables shoppers to communicate with sellers through their dedicated team of native Chinese and English account managers via their 7-day live chat support, and all products are listed in local language and currency. With such dedication, SGshop boasts an impressive number of 65,000 registered users and 80,000 followers on Facebook.
Focused on the cross border e-commerce business, SGshop provides a platform for local shoppers to purchase products from China, assisting them in their purchase and delivery of products, whilst ensuring that the products arrive in good condition. With a young management and technical team, SGshop provides a unique B2B2C operation that cuts the presence of retailers, importers and wholesalers, bringing personalised shopping to consumers. SGshop aims to ultimately be the international shopping gateway providing Malaysian shoppers shopping for overseas products without hassle.
The e-commerce sector is one of the fastest growing and most attractive industries in Malaysia. The latest estimate by Statista revealed that the e-commerce platform has garnered revenue of RM4.2 billion by the end of 2017, and is expected to generate RM9.8 billion annually by 2022. The adoption of e-commerce platforms in the past years has greatly increased due to the surge of internet users. In 2017, there were 15.1 million active users in Malaysia, which is 47.9% of the Malaysian population. With the introduction of more affordable internet and broadband plans each year, the number of Internet users is only expected to continuously rise.
The government has provided incentives too. According to SGshop, the Digital Free Trade Zone has enhanced the logistic and cross border e-commerce activity by enabling shorter custom clearance time and offering attractive non-dutiable amounts. In the most recent development, the Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Gobind Singh Deo, made a statement pushing for cheaper, wider, and faster fixed broadband access to a wider population, saying, “A lot of people do not know what opportunities exists if you use the Internet to market your products. E-commerce is a big area of development and for that, we need fast fixed broadband in place.’’ Telokom Malaysia, the major player of Malaysia’s internet provider, is also quick to show their commitment to this incentive by offering up to 10 times free speed upgrade for Unifi, and pushing top speed to 800Mbps. Exciting times are indeed in store for Malaysian online shoppers and e-commerce businesses.
With such exciting and encouraging market potential, SGshop now seeks funding through ECF in a maximum target amount of RM500,000.00 and a minimum of RM150,000.00, looking to utilise the fund specifically to strengthen their IT department, develop brand awareness, and expand sourcing countries and regions. SGshops also sees the funding as an investing opportunity for the public to earn together with them, citing the annual online shopping holy grail of 11.11 and 12.12, when e-commerce businesses’ profit hits the roof each year with huge discounts offered to shoppers. As an indication, SGshop’s single day transaction volume during the most recent 11.11 and 12.12 was 5 times its normal value!
It seems like the wait for that cute phone cover does not have to be such a torture anymore. And getting a piece of an almost guaranteed profit from such a strong growing industry? Makes it all the sweeter!
