Exploring e-commerce to uplift business digitally

Dr Hen sharing his knowledge during the webinar

Realising the importance of e-commerce in the economy sector, the Institute of Management and Leadership Development (IMLD) organised a webinar on “Uplifting business digitally: An exploration with e-Commerce” on 10 April 2021, via Zoom to assess the current e-commerce market, while understanding the different types of e-commerce business models. The webinar also aimed to explore the opportunities offered by e-commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic and to recognise the emerging and future trends of e-commerce.

The webinar, which saw more than 120 participants, was presented by Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) Deputy Dean for Academic Development and Undergraduate Programmes Dr Hen Kai Wah who is a certified trainer and lecturer for the Alibaba Global Digital Talent programme. The webinar session was moderated by FAM lecturer Dr Goh Hong Lip.

Dr Hen explaining the e-commerce ecosystem

“Prior to 1994, e-commerce did not even exist. Fast forward to 2021, global online sales are forecasted to reach 22 per cent of all retail sales in 2023. By 2040, 95 per cent of retail purchases are likely to be made online and traditional retail may hardly exist. Currently, China has the largest e-commerce market in the world. As of 2021, there are 2.14 billion global digital buyers which can be translated to 27.2 per cent of the world population and these numbers are still growing day by day. Thus, the key takeaway is that with more people shopping online each year, there has never been a better time to start an online store,” Dr Hen explained.

“E-commerce can be defined as an economic activity that occurs online. It includes buying, selling and exchanging products, services and information over the internet. It also involves the use of the internet, the web and mobile apps to transact business. E-commerce refers to buying and selling online, involving financial transaction while e-business encompasses all business conducted online which include the inventory management, email marketing, content management system, big data and data mining as well as business processes,” said Dr Hen.

Dr Hen also shared the projected global retail e-commerce sales in 2020, top ten countries ranked by retail e-commerce sales, e-commerce activity overview, consumer goods e-commerce in Malaysia, percentage of e-commerce adoption in various countries, differences between e-commerce and e-business and other related topics. “The types of e-commerce are such as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-business (C2B), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), government-to-government (G2G), government-to-business (G2B), peer-to-peer (P2P), business-to-employee (B2E), online-to-offline or offline-to-online (O2O), mobile commerce, social commerce and location commerce,” added Dr Hen.

e-Commerce players in Malaysia

The few unique features of e-commerce technology are ubiquity, global reach, universal standard, social technology, personalisation customisation, information density, interactivity and richness. E-commerce helps to overcome geographical limitations, lower costs, locate product quickly through search engines, eliminate travel time and cost, provide comparison shopping, enable deals, bargains, coupons as well as group buying and provide rich information. Aside from that, it remains open all the time and it creates markets for niche products. “Some of the emerging trends are Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ), power of social influencer or better known as key opinion leader, online-to-offline, innovative delivery tools, big data and augmented reality shopping. It is time to start uplifting your business digitally via e-commerce now,” advised Dr Hen.

Dr Goh (top row, far left), Dr Hen (top row, middle) and IMLD Director Prof Dr Cheng Ming Yu (top row, second from right) with the participants during group photography session