Alibaba offers Malaysian merchants access into China

By Digital News Asia March 29, 2018

More than 500 Malaysian merchants participated in the business seminar
Malaysia among fastest growing countries selling into China

Alibaba offers Malaysian merchants access into China

AS PART of its commitment to lower trade barriers and provide SMEs with more equitable access to global markets, Alibaba Group hosted its first “Access to China Consumers” Seminar, with the aim to enable Malaysian exporter to tap into the demand among Chinese consumers for Malaysian and foreign products.

More than 500 Malaysian merchants participated in the seminar which took place at MECC.

The seminar was designed to help small and medium-sized businesses in Malaysia better understand the China opportunity, major drivers in its e-commerce boom, as well as the latest insights and tools to sell their products effectively in China’s prosperous e-commerce market.

“Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. Our long-term commitment here in Malaysia is to be an enabler for local Malaysian businesses to prosper through an open and robust ecosystem and assist in building the future infrastructure of commerce in this market with local partners, utilising our eWTP pilot, Malaysia’s Digital Free Trade Zone,” said James Song, chief representative in Malaysia, Alibaba Group.

“The cooperation between the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, the various government agencies and the Alibaba Group to set up the DFTZ which went live last November here in Malaysia is a huge win for SMEs and e-commerce.

“The DFTZ and Alibaba’s eWTP have one common goal, to redefine global trade by making it as seamless and simplified as possible for Malaysian SMI’s and SMEs to participate and prosper. In the future, we believe there will no longer be e-commerce because commerce will become e (electronic). It is imperative for local small and medium sized businesses to get on e-commerce and not miss the boat.” said Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation chief executive officer Yasmin Mahmood.

The one-day seminar featured experts from Alibaba businesses, including Tmall, China’s largest third-party platform for brands and retailers, Tmall Global, largest B2C cross-border e-commerce platform in China, and the logistics arm Cainiao, aimed at educating Malaysian businesses on how they can grow their exports by marketing their products effectively to the Chinese market.

The main takeaways of the day included:

Small and Medium-sized brands and retailers can effectively enter China via e-commerce. By 2020, 60 cents of every dollar spent online globally will come from China, according to eMarketer, and cross-border e-commerce in China will grow six-fold from 2015 through 2020, to US$245 billion, according to AliResearch and Accenture.
Tmall continues to gain ground as a critical channel for reaching China’s increasingly sophisticated consumers. Tmall offers more than just another sales channel to brands. It’s also a platform to promote new products, build a connection with customers and increase business both online and offline. It has become the optimised way to penetrate into the Chinese market as it provides a cross-border business model for many foreign brands and retailers to expand their business into China.
Tmall Global is a shortcut for Malaysian brands looking to test the waters and sell their products in the Chinese market, without a physical presence in China. Foreign merchants do not need a Chinese business license to join the platform. It also offers retailers marketing solutions targeted at China, leveraging one-stop logistics solution through Cainiao, Alibaba’s core logistics infrastructure. This drastically slashes the amount of time and cost it takes for Malaysian businesses to enter the China market.
If you’re a foreign entrepreneur who wants to enter the Chinese e-commerce market, you can also call on a Tmall Partner. Tmall Partners are certified agencies or service providers that help retailers set up their shops and boutiques on the platform, offering services ranging from day-to-day store operation, CRM to integrated marketing and etc.

“We are dedicated to helping drive exports of Malaysian products and services to the global market with tailored solutions, as well as contributing to the upgrade and transformation of the local export and tourism industries,” Song continued.

According to the recent 2017 Tmall Global Annual Consumers Report, jointly published by Tmall Global, Malaysia was reported among the fastest-growing exporters selling into China, ranking seventh after niche countries measured by year-on-year growth.

The seminar is the latest showcase in Alibaba’s realisation of the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) pilot at the Digital Free Trade Zone in Malaysia. Launched in March last year, the Malaysia eWTP hub aims to offer Malaysian SMEs the infrastructure for engaging in global trade with services encompassing e-commerce, logistics, cloud computing, mobile payment and talent training.