(From sixth right) Yasmin, Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia Datuk Jailani Johari, and MDeC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali are seen holding placards with logos of #MYCYBERSALE 2015 participating eTailers.

KUCHING: Malaysia’s biggest online sale event returns today, with bigger and better deals, and more participating eTailers including those from Sabah and Sarawak.

The #MYCYBERSALE event this year, which will be held from today (September 28) until October 2, will host over 400 eTailers, an increase of more than 40 per cent compared to 2014, as more eTailers from outside the Klang Valley join the fray. Last year, only one e-Tailer from Sabah and one e-Tailer from Sarawak joined #MYCYBERSALE. This year, according to Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) there are three from Sabah and two from Sarawak.

“Given the great response last year and seeing how #MYCYBERSALE was also able to transform consumer lifestyle, as well as the way of doing business, #MYCYBERSALE 2015 is bigger and better to continue growing the eCommerce industry and bringing the ecosystem together to embrace the Digital Malaysia agenda,” said MDeC chief executive officer Datuk Yasmin Mahmood, during the launch of the event earlier this month.

“#MYCYBERSALE 2015 will gather the country’s biggest and most popular online stores selling products and services with attractive deals (discount, free shipping and other benefits) at the same time.

“This offers convenience to consumers as it will enable them to buy the best of what online shopping has to offer all at one place at affordable prices. Consumers will also be able to make better purchase decisions as they can easily make product and price comparisons which will enhance their shopping experience,” MDeC director of e-Commerce, Wee Huay Neo, told The Borneo Post in an email interview.

In addition to more participants, the shopping period this year has also been extended to five days to accommodate more shoppers.

“This plays to the benefit of both consumers and eTailers as both parties have a longer duration to purchase and sell respectively which in turn will enable e-Tailers to make more revenue due to the extended shopping period.

When asked on the target for this year’s event, Wee revealed, “This year, we hope to generate more online shopping demand from consumers for #MYCYBERSALE, which will help boost e-Shopping culture in Malaysia. Additionally, we also want to encourage more Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be a part of eCommerce eco-system, either as supplier to eMarket places or own e-store front, and meet the demand of online shoppers.

“We also hope to increase the domestic eCommerce revenue over the eCommerce spending in the country, so that Malaysia can become a net exporter.

“For 2015, we target to achieve approximately RM 100 million in gross merchandise value (revenue) and RM 50 million in SME gross merchandise value (revenue).”

Of note, the first #MYCYBERSALE in 2014 generated RM67million in revenue from 227,000 successful transactions, with over 200 per cent increase in online traffic reported by participating eTailers.

On this year’s increase in East Malaysian participants, Wee noted that based on MDeC’s observation, the number of merchants that are aware of the benefits of e-Commerce are increasing, but still low in participation due to the lack of handholding by eCommerce providers (such as Web designer, and eMarketplaces).

She also pointed out that most of the web designers and eMarketplaces are based in West Malaysia while only one marketplace is based in Sabah, which is www.shopbah.com.

The delivery cost From east Malaysia to West Malaysia is still high, making penetration to West Malaysia a bit difficult, unless it is Sabah or Sarawak-based products (such as Kek Lapis).

Nevertheless, Wee highlighted that via the event, eTailers will gain exposure to the regional market.

“eTailers also stand to benefit from the larger target market as this year’s event reaches beyond Malaysia to regional shoppers from Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia,” she commented.

eTailers from East Malaysia include Connect2U (Sabah), which specialises on premium quality electronic products, Netquas Holiday Sdn Bhd (Sabah), an online tourism service booking for holidays in Sabah, One Trooper System Sdn Bhd (Sabah), a multi-category online shop, Jernehjaya (Sarawak), a perfume store, and Supermain Marketing (Sarawak), a multi-category online shop.

Other popular eMarketplaces participating in this year’s event include 11street.my, GEMFIVE, Go Shop, Qoo10, Agrobazaar, Lazada, Zalora, Lelong.my, Rakuten, and Groupon.

Maybank and Visa will also assist in reaching the target consumers as #MYCYBERSALE 2015 official promotion partners.

MDeC has also introduced the #MYCYBERSALE App, which is now available for download on Google Play Store and Apple iStore.

#MYCYBERSALE is an initiative under Digital Malaysia to catalyse the growth of the eCommerce industry as it is an important contributor to the digital economy and eTailing is a fast-growing component within this industry.

#MYCYBERSALE 2015 is endorsed and governed by the Ministry of Communications & Multimedia (KKMM) and regulators such as the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism (KPDNKK) which oversees the overall e-commerce Act, regulation and buyer protection; the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM), which oversees regulations around communication and multimedia; SMECorp which governs the participation of Malaysian SMEs; and CyberSecurity Malaysia which oversees the  e-commerce and cyberspace security, code of conduct and trust.