The Malaysian logistics sector contributed 3.8% to the country’s GDP in 2019 and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) has also noted that activities in the industry continue to increase significantly.
The rise of e-commerce played a significant role in accelerating the industry forward, giving rise to several players that have enabled the government to position Malaysia as a potential regional e-fulfilment hub in the coming years.
One player that has reflected the growth of the industry is Ninja Van. Despite an eventful last two years, the group has performed well for 2021, having close to 2 million shippers, more than 110 million parcel recipients served, and over 2 million parcels delivered daily. To date, the company has over 67,000 employees.
Last September, on a group level, Ninja Van completed their Series E funding round, which saw investors including Geopost, B Capital Group, Monk’s Hill Ventures and Alibaba Group. Locally, the company continues to record a healthy growth in parcel volumes. Back in July 2021, Ninja Van Malaysia celebrated their 100 millionth parcel. And finally, when comparing YoY growth, the team saw a 98% increase in parcel volume in 2021 as compared to 2020.
Becoming a trusted logistics partner
According to Adzim Halim, Chief Executive Officer of Ninja Van Malaysia, the success of the company is largely due to the team’s commitment to understanding the needs of their customers, be it shippers or parcel recipients.
“We can’t speak for all industry players, but what has worked for us is having a well-established network that allows us to achieve more time and cost-efficient deliveries. By focusing on resources, we found that growth and differentiation are stimulated. Finally, by offering shippers optionality and flexibility, we can commit to quality shipping and contribute towards customer satisfaction and loyalty,” he adds.
The company has also recently announced that they have initiated their 7-day operations schedule across the nation, as part of their continued efforts to provide more efficient and faster delivery services.
This move is one of many aimed at achieving their goal of 100% coverage throughout all of Malaysia. It further complements plans to drive growth via expansion into different industries, most notably the B2B segment.
“In the B2B segment, Malaysia will be the first of six markets to venture into this new business unit, and we will also be introducing our fulfillment services soon to support the maturing e-commerce seller base,” Adzim shares.
Ninja Van Malaysia has also established over 30 self-owned stores across Klang Valley, a number that is expected to double in the months to come. This is yet another part of their overall plans to better service customers and partners across different areas. Another way that Ninja Van Malaysia sets itself apart is through their innovative ‘Ninja Packs’ that comes with the Ninja Van proprietary real-time tracking technology, which is able to store customer and sender information on cloud and is only made visible via the driver app or operating system, thus preventing any potential interference from scammers.
New Challenges on The Horizon
Always innovating and adapting, Ninja Van is well aware that with the continued growth of ecommerce, there will be a shift in demand for more logistic solutions. This is why they prioritise on providing customers both speed and optionality.
According to Adzim, he believes that industry players must look at developing their infrastructure and changing operating models to meet these expectations. Hence, at Ninja Van Malaysia, the team is tuned to focus on elevating operational excellence by developing better infrastructure and systems, as well as increasing its fleet size.
Committed to delivery excellence, Ninja Van Malaysia recently opened a new warehouse of over 260,000 square feet in response to the surge in parcel volume. This is also in line with the company’s expansion plan to future-proof its parcel-handling operations all across the country. The new warehouse currently operates in a hybrid manual-automated mode, enabling the company to create
a more seamless and efficient process to ensure their parcels are delivered to customers in a timely manner.
Being Different, Staying Different
“When we started, we thought the key differentiator was to have real-time traceability. Our differentiator was simply real-time tracking at that point, but other companies soon caught up. So, it’s crucial that we keep one step ahead and look at better ways to innovate and differentiate,” Adzim tells BusinessToday.
Being better did not necessarily mean being faster, he adds further. Instead, it meant being more hassle-free. For instance, for customers who could not be home for pick-up, having the option to drop off parcels at a nearby convenience store was one way to provide optionality and greater convenience with their delivery.
Additionally, the company’s Fantastic Service Recovery approach towards issue resolution further translates to greater reliability and consistency as they can identify and proactively resolve issues across the entire operation chain.
This will allow both businesses that work with Ninja Van Malaysia and consumers that are serviced by the company to expect faster response rates and more timely resolutions.
