Trending
14
Bridging Online, Offline Retailing In March 2021, the Star Media Group Sdn Bhd organised a two-day live virtual conference themed The Smart Retail: Powering Nation’s Digital Economy. The conference featured prominent speakers and panelists from the retail industry, including MRCA President Shirley Tay, on the dynamics of the industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. uring the event, panelists and speakers expounded on the evolution of the retail landscape and its rapid progress into digitalisation fueled by the pandemic situation. With movement restrictions in place and limited access to retail outlets, consumers were forced to adopt online shopping as the next best solution to accessing goods. Lazada Malaysia’s Chief Marketing Officer Diana Boo, noted that the online shopping platform saw a 300% increase in new sellers on-board last year, via its Pakej Kedai Pintar stimulus plan, aimed at assisting local SMEs to sell online.
D
FashionValet & The dUCk Group Co-founder Vivy Yusof said that 2020 was a very challenging year and her companies had to be very smart in product pivots, to cater to the changed consumer landscape. Recognising the evolving business landscape, the Malaysian government has also lent its support through Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). According to MDEC CEO, Surina Shukri, MDEC introduced initiatives to help SMEs overcome the digital divide such as its nationwide campaign under the government’s Penjana stimulus plan partnering private sector companies to onboard microSMEs onto online sites. MDEC
What’s in Store for Retail in 2021? Power Panel (from left): Assistant Professor of Marketing, Asia School of Business & international Faculty Fellow at MIT Willem Smit, ADA’s Regional Head of Business Insights Vittorio Furlan, Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Secretary General Datuk Seri Hj. Hasnol Zam Zam Ahmad, MRCA President Shirley Tay and The Food Purveyor’s CEO Geoff King.
Malaysia Retailer Vol 9 No 1
also rolled out its eUsahawan programme, to assist Malaysian youths and micro entrepreneurs in digital entrepreneurship. To-date, MDEC has helped train 365,000 people - 65% of them are female entrepreneurs. The conference also featured a session entitled “What’s in Store for Retail in 2021?” moderated by Willem Smit, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Asia School of Business. During the session, Shirley Tay, President of MRCA pointed out that Generation Z (those born from the late 1990s to early 2010s) are changing the retail arena. “Generation Z are very knowledgeable, well informed, and many of them are financially secure thanks to parents who have fewer children,” she said. Shirley Tay also stressed that retailers need to have omnichannel strategies to reach customers, and that “connectivity and engagement with consumers has to be the top priority”. The Food Purveyor CEO Geoff King noted that the food retail industry had seen a much bigger growth in online commerce in 2020. “We’ve had to adapt very fast to meet that need. And where we used to pride ourselves
