The Top E-Commerce Merchant Awards 2019 for Malaysia was officially launched today at the Selangor Digital Creative Centre (SDCC), making it the fourth iteration of the Awards organised by the Selangor IT and E-Commerce Council (SITEC).
This prestigious award seeks to reward the most successful, creative and innovative homegrown e-merchants with a prize pool of RM 25,000 in cash and other attractive prizes in kind. At the same time, merchants who take part can benefit from increased recognition and opportunities to further increase their brand’s presence among the industry.
The launch today, held at the Selangor Digital Creative Centre in i-City, Shah Alam, was officiated by YB Dato’ Teng Chang Khim, Executive Councillor of the Selangor EXCO and graced by Dato’ Hasan Azhari HJ. Idris, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Invest Selangor, and Yong Kai Ping, Chief Executive of SITEC.
Similar to the Online 100 programme, the Malaysia Top e-Commerce Merchant Awards 2019 represents SITEC’s plan of action to further uplift and strengthen the country’s e-commerce ecosystem. The competition will judge participants on five core areas, namely on their products, their platforms, their visibility and promotions, their business potential and their sales and transaction volumes.
Judging will be split between scores from the competition’s panel of judges and their online sales contest performance (sales volume and transaction), with a 50-50 split. On top of Yong Kai Ping and SITEC Academy’s Director, Goh Boon Peng, the panel of judges include major e-commerce players and individuals such as:
- Song Hock Koon – Director of e-Commerce, MDEC
- Pradeeban Letsumanasingam – Manager, Ventures (Corporate Innovation and Innovation Capital, MaGIC
- Ganesh Kumar Bangah – Chairman, PIKOM
- TK Tan – President, Internet Alliance
- Noraslan Hadi Abdul Kadir – Director, Transformation and Digital Trade Division, MARTRADE
- Xelia Tong – Vice President, Investment & Head of Angel Tax Incentive, Cradle, and
- Zaky bin Moh – Senior Director, Business Development & Entrepreneurship, SME Corp
“In 2017 e-Commerce contributed approximately 6.3 percent to the national GDP at RM85.8 billion, and the Selangor State Government, through SITEC, has gone to great lengths to successfully nurture e-Commerce in the state through various thrusts. Among them include the Online 100 and Apps 100 programmes, and free education for the public in the form of e-Commerce Classes and the SITEC Academy virtual learning portal,” Teng said.
According to Yong, SITEC has aggressively engaged the local e-commerce community since its inception in mid-2015, with Malaysia’s Top e-Commerce Merchant Awards as one of the value-added opportunities made available for local SMEs.
“Since 2015, we have held 91 free e-commerce classes and with over 450 merchants under the SITEC Online 100 programme that, have to date, accumulated a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of around RM10,900,000 over 85,000 orders.
“We strongly encourage local merchants to go digital and accessible – and we have supported SITEC’s e-merchants with over 450 combined mobile apps stores on the Google Playstore and Apple Store. These were all developed for merchants under the SITEC Apps 100 and Online 100 programme. We are confident this number is set to grow as SITEC continues in its trajectory to facilitate and engage both the e-commerce and SME communities in Selangor and beyond,” noted Yong.
