KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians too have increasingly resorted to shopping online with a host of e-commerce sites now offering convenience to buy almost anything from the comfort of our homes.
This avenue for making various purchases has also been a good deal for Malaysians since the imposition of the goods and services tax (GST) in April 2015.
Besides the lure of features like discounts and online vouchers, they have found buying goods and services on the platform to be a valuable lifestyle choice.
Shopback country general manager Alvin Gill said the company initially faced the challenge of educating people who had not heard of the online shopping concept before, with many having expressed concern over its authenticity fearing it was some sort of scam.
He said the company’s findings showed several factors, including the petrol price hike and increase in food costs, had caused Malaysians to optimise their spending.
“After the implementation of GST, we saw that users shopping via ShopBack were especially treating it as a way of saving money on their purchases.
“Data shows that when it comes to savings, Malaysians are more aggressive and increasingly choose cashback platforms as a convenient way to accumulate cashback rewards for every transaction,” he said.
Gill said the 850,000 Malaysians who used the site had enjoyed over RM25 million in cashback from their purchases.
Another site frequented as a “savings haven” is Shopee Malaysia, whose regional managing director, Ian Ho said the company found that Malaysians were becoming increasingly savvy when shopping online.
“A survey done on 7,500 online shoppers across Malaysia showed that 97% plan their online shopping around discounts, flash sales and vouchers availability.
“It appears that getting maximum value out of online shopping has become a lifestyle choice among Malaysians.
“Users even log in multiple times a day to get updates on the latest deals when they intend to buy something online,” he said.
Based on the company’s survey, over 46% of respondents indicated that they browsed Shopee three to six times daily to compare prices and check for deals.
