POKOK SENA: The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry will intensify efforts to promote local products via e-commerce in a bid to enhance the Buy Malaysian Products Campaign.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, said cooperation with popular e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Lazada, for example, had become increasingly relevant as consumers moved towards purchasing more goods online.
“Shopee reported a 200 per cent increase in sales last month through the introduction of several Malaysian-made products, namely over 3,500 ‘stock keeping units (SKUs)’.
“The way of doing business now has changed … e-commerce platforms are in such a trend, that if we get left behind and don’t take advantage of it, we will lose out,” he told reporters after attending a programme at SK Kiau here yesterday.
He said the ministry was also collaborating with AirAsia, which flies over 100 million passengers annually with its 250 aircraft.
“We are implementing the Buy Malaysian Products Campaign through its e-commerce platform known as ‘Ourshop’, in addition to selling goods or food on board aircraft,” Saifuddin said.
In addition, he said the policy imposed on all major and leading supermarkets to display up to 30 per cent of local products at their premises had also provided a boost to local companies.
“There is success; for example, one local coffee maker recorded sales of up to seven figures. There are also brands of fruit cakes, sauces that we have helped penetrate the larger supermarkets and they have recorded very high sales,” he said.
He said based on the success of the campaign so far, the ministry would increase its efforts to promote the sale of local products.
“We will improve the mechanism and intensify the campaign through various marketplaces so that local products can reach a wider target market, where if given a chance, these local products are comparable to others in the market,” he added. — Bernama