The rise and rise of e-commerce, and the impending next big thing called 'live commerce'
Ganesh Kumar Bangah, Executive Chairman,
Even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, e-commerce was already on an upward trajectory.
The recent 11/11 Singles Day sale was evidence of this growing trend, with Commerce.Asia, which has become synonymous with being the leading e-commerce ecosystem enabler, posting unprecedented growth as compared to last year.
Today, Commerce.Asia has a database of 8 million small medium enterprises spread across 7 countries, coupled with 61,000 active merchants who sold more than MYR1.5 billion worth of goods in 2019.
According to our records, e-commerce transactions in respect of 11/11 soared by some 1,939% this year, compared to 2019 which had then also increased 429% from 2018.
This growth in e-commerce is a given, now that most consumers trust such platforms and websites to conduct businesses. This paradigm shift in consumer behaviour has happened overnight, benefitting early adopters of e-commerce platforms, while those late to the game have suffered and are racing to get online.
Interestingly, e-commerce started taking off in 2003 through another pandemic: The outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in Hong Kong and China.
In Malaysia, our internal studies show that Malaysians spend some 70% more time on social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram these days, compared to pre-MCO.
This trend of continuous social media participation appears to be progressively increasing, and also accentuated by on-demand content videos coupled with live streaming of events, with the preferred device being mobile phones.
Hence, I believe that the next big thing is consumer purchasing behaviour would be ‘live commerce’.
Live Commerce and what It entails
Firstly, what exactly is live commerce? In a nutshell, live commerce represents the fusion of e-commerce and live-streaming which centres around influencers showcasing and promoting products and services to viewers.
We expect this industry to soar in the years ahead.
In 2018 alone, live commerce generated over RMB100 billion (RM60 billion) in transactions on Taobao, Alibaba’s premier C2C e-commerce marketplace in China. For Singles Day 2019, live commerce generated RMB20 billion (RM12 billion).
Foreseeing this trend, both my group of companies – Commerce.Asia and Netccentric Ltd which is Asia’s prioneering growth ecosystem – established Nuffnang Live Commerce in 2H 2020 with an aim of serving as a live commerce enabler for companies looking to expand their e-commerce business.
The name Nuffnang stems from Netccentric’s wholly-owned subsidiary Nuffnang Sdn Bhd, an established ‘influencer’ and content marketing company in Malaysia and throughout Southeast Asia.
Today, Nuffnang has one of the largest influencer community reach in Malaysia (by revenue) and has one of the most comprehensive networks of some 13,000 celebrities, personalities and content creators across all levels of society and diversity with a collective reach to more than 20 million consumers in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
Integrating our influencer, content and e-commerce know-hows, we now provide end-to-end live video commerce solutions from live video production to payment and product fulfilment with Nuffnang Live Commerce.
What’s more, this AI-based platform solution is API integrated with Facebook to provide a seamless user interface for merchants, from automated order management to online payment.
We are optimistic on the growth of live commerce in this region. With this platform strategy, we will connect multiple groups – including merchants, influencers and consumers – to create a positive network effect.
