BusinessToday chats with LamboPlace’s Group CEO, Jason Yap on the platform’s commitment towards SMEs in the country. Through initiatives to get SMEs back on the feet, Yap dedicated to making sure local SMEs come out of the pandemic stronger than ever.
- How is a platform like LamboPlace aiding SMEs tide through times such as the one we are in? What are some of the initiatives that have taken place?
LamboPlace provides an online-selling ready platform. We ensure that the sign-up process is easy, and vendors only need to provide the pics and details as we will upload the products for them.
We also offer low margin fees – which means we only charge if products are sold on our platform. On top of that, our fixed payment gateway fees are only 1.8 percent throughout all payment methods available and we offer low delivery fees as we absorb ⅓ of the fees. This means vendors and their customers pay only ⅓ each and there are no other hidden fees.
In order to offer a holistic assistance for the SMEs, we also give them free marketing & promotional activities, on top of advertising vendors’ brands & products at no extra charges. All marketing costs are borne by us.
We have also partnered up with a few initiatives like the Jom Transform Programme by The Finlab, UOB and MDEC, and more are coming in the pipeline to help micro-SMEs to in their digitalisation journey via e-commerce.
- What has the impact of these initiatives been like?
As of now, we have received about 70 percent vendor sign ups and we are looking forward to introducing more programs with our partners, to provide a larger impact and really help these SMEs. It’s like a second chance knocking on your door.
- LamboPlace participated in The FinLab & MDEC’s Jom Transform programme, could you share more about your participation and what sort of support LamboPlace offers?
We participated as one of the Technological Service Provider (TSP) specifically as an e-Commerce Platform Provider. Apart from all the perks and benefits that can be enjoyed by all our vendors, participants of the Jom Transform Programme will also receive free shipping fees credit for one year.
- How can platforms such as yours continue to empower and champion SMEs in 2021?
From Day 1, our mission is to provide a platform that ensures each vendor is special where we don’t allow double listings of the same products. Because we only sell authentic and original products, we encourage local SMEs who have their own products or are authorised distributors of products to come on board with us.
- What are your future plans on supporting Malaysian SMEs?
We hope to be able to collaborate with more partners and government agencies to provide support and assistance for the Malaysian SMEs in their business digitalisation journey via eCommerce.
- What are some of the key areas Malaysian SMEs should look into to greatly improve and progress
- We think Malaysian SMEs should not miss the opportunity to start going online and explore e-commerce, especially now when the need is greater than ever. We are sure that many have started looking for ways to sustain their businesses online/digitally (incase if there’s a lockdown initiated again). Some of the key areas that they need to look into include:
- practice transforming their businesses, i.e. train employees to use online apps/software for daily tasks/communication
- work with other partners who are powered online to help digitalise their operations
- start somewhere when transitioning online, bit by bit. Iterate slowly as you go along. Some businesses are afraid to take the step of transitioning because they think they have to adapt the digital aspects of businesses wholly.
- How will your support for Malaysian SMEs differ from 2020 and this year?
We definitely want to provide more aid and support for them in 2021. In 2021, we want to further eliminate more barriers for Malaysian SMEs to go digital, and hopefully with our easy sign-up process will help SMEs kickstart their online business journey.
