US$260mil generated for Selangor economy through Selangor E-Bazar 11.11 campaign

• US$490k vouchers leads to US$7.9mil direct sales benefits
• State govt does not believe digitalisation exclusive to middle and upper class only

The Selangor E-Bazar 11.11 Mega Sales Campaign, held last year from Oct 26 to Dec 15 was a big success, recording US$260 million (RM1.04 billion) in its multiplier effect to the economy – including RM32.06 million in direct sales. The Selangor government had channeled RM2 million in the form of vouchers for the campaign that onboarded 26,744 new e-merchants, benefiting a total of 73,791 e-merchants, a 267% increase from the initial target of 10,000 new e-merchants.

The latest results show a 274% increase in direct sales and a 307% increase in ripple effect to the state economy, compared with the Selangor E-Bazar Raya Campaign held from May 4 to July 4 2020. Ripple effect is the total purchased from a particular basket of sales which includes other non-voucher subsidised items - a spillover effect driven by the Selangor E-Bazar 11.11 Campaign.

The campaign was jointly coordinated by Invest Selangor and the Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (SITEC) in collaboration with Shopee and Lazada – two of the most popular online sales platforms in Malaysia.

The results have vindicated the state government’s decision to embrace digital platforms when the first Movement Control Order (MCO) was announced in mid March 2020.

Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said Selangor was the first state to embrace digital platforms when the first MCO was announced last year.

Under the Selangor Economic Recovery Plan 2020 which focused on assisting SMEs weathering the Covid-19 storm, the Selangor government launched various digital initiatives:

• RM600,000 was allocated for the Selangor E-Kitchen programme
• RM1 million for the Selangor E-Bazar Raya Campaign
• RM2 million for the Selangor E-Bazar 11.11 campaign, and
• an additional RM2 million for the “Nak Bercuti? Pusing Selangor Dulu” campaign to revive tourism in the state

[RM1 = US$0.25]

“We want to create an accommodative symbiotic ecosystem to cater to all Selangorians. Based on the principle of ‘No one will be left behind’, digitalisation is not exclusive to the middle and upper classes only, but to all Selangorians,” Amirudin explains.

“To make the Premier Smart State and Selangor Digitalisation Agenda a success, the state government and relevant agencies have allocated RM369 million in the state budget of 2021,” said Amirudin.

Meanwhile, Selangor executive councillor for Industry and Trade, Teng Chang Khim highlighted how the E-Bazar campaign helped SMEs and micro SMEs affected by the Covid-19 pandemic to attain new sources of income, with some even gaining higher sales during the MCO.

“We have seen traditional brick and mortar companies going online and successfully generating income to weather the storm during the MCO. More importantly, online grocery shopping has boomed. It provides sales for merchants, jobs for e-hailing deliveryman and convenience for customers, creating a win-win situation.”

Fourth largest spender globally through 11.11 campaign
Given that both Shopee and Lazada have seen a record-breaking performance during the November 11 campaign in 2020 with Malaysia becoming the fourth largest spender globally through the 11.11 online shopping campaign, according to Alibaba Group's news hub – Alizila, the Selangor E-Bazar campaign’s significant achievement is in tandem with current global trends and stands out as it promotes local SMEs.

In total, from the two rounds of the Selangor E-Bazar campaigns, SMEs successfully generated a total of RM1.39 billion in ripple effect to the economy through direct sales of RM43.76 million from the RM3 million in vouchers channeled by the Selangor state government.

“The campaign has empowered tens of thousands of Selangor sellers with added incentives for those new to e- commerce,” noted Ian Ho, Regional Managing Director of Shopee.

“The participating Selangor sellers on Shopee leveraged our marketing assets for maximum exposure and were able to enjoy high customer traffic during our 11.11 shopping festival,” he adds.

From SITEC to SIDEC

In a major decision aimed at improving the management and development of the state’s various digital economy programmes, the state government has rebranded and upgraded SITEC to SIDEC Sdn Bhd, a full-fledged government-linked company and subsidiary under Invest Selangor.

Established under the secretariat of Invest Selangor by the Selangor State Government in 2015, SITEC focused on developing Selangor as the regional trading hub for e-commerce and to uplift the startup ecosystem within the state.

Since 2015, SITEC has successfully onboarded 650 e-commerce merchants and trained more than 9,000 SMEs and individuals who wish to make sales online through its E-Commerce Class, Master Class, Online 100 and Brands 100 programmes.

SITEC has also nurtured 90 startups from the three cohorts of the Selangor Accelerator Programme (SAP) and organised 3 Pitch@Selangor sessions, as well as making pitching and industrial visits to the Silicon Valley. SITEC also reached out to more than 600 Micro-SMEs from municipals in Selangor through the popular Jelajah Usahawan Digital.

The expectations are that SIDEC will outpace the track record of SITEC, which in five years has generated a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of RM334.81 million through its various high-impact programmes. That is the bar to cross for SIDEC.