KUALA TERENGGANU: The Terengganu Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DPPMT) has urged entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to stop being complacent and to study e-commerce seriously to ensure business continuity.
DPPMT’s deputy president Dr Tengku Khairi A. Rahman said there were some entrepreneurs who were enthusiastic only at the initial stage but gave up easily, losing their creativity.
He said the movement control order (MCO) last year had proven that online transactions managed to increase revenue for entrepreneurs.
“For a start, they can participate in basic online business courses offered by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (Mdec).
“There are few courses under the Penjana package the duration of which are one to five days, some of them are offered for free. DPPMT also offers consulting services to assist entrepreneurs who are interested in learning digital marketing methods and digitising SME operations,” he told Bernama here today.
Tengku Khairi said based on a recent survey, consumers in Malaysia were found to prioritise online spending on food delivery, food items, clothing, beauty products and health supplements throughout the MCO last year.
He added that for the period January to September last year, the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) recorded 299,431 new business registrations and 86,295 of them were online businesses.
“This shows that many traders are shifting to e-commerce. SMEs need to survive and compete especially in achieving sales target in line with better quality of services,” he said.
To this effect, Tengku Khairi said entrepreneurs were advised to evaluate and improve a number of aspects in boosting the dominance of e-commerce during the pandemic period.
Among them are evaluating all means of communication with customers, updating data, improving financial management efficiency and more efficient delivery methods.
“The readiness to find solutions is very important for entrepreneurs. DPPMT calls on Bumiputera entrepreneurs to immediately act to change to more flexible business models to suit the current pandemic scenario and the changes in the consumer market,” he added. – Bernama
