E-commerce in Malaysia Archives – unicommerce.com

Multi Warehouse Management for E-commerce Businesses in Malaysia – Challenges & their Solutions

Chenxian Fu — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 06:22:43 +0000

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Understanding What is Multi Warehouse Management
3. Needs and Challenges For Multi-Warehouse Management in Malaysia

Order Routing
Fragmented Inventory
Inefficient Order Fulfillment
Increased Operational Cost and Complexity

4. Solutions for Effective Multi Warehouse Management

Implementing Robust Inventory
Efficient Automated System Integration

5. Let’s Sync Your Multi-warehouse Set Up!

The numbers in the e-commerce ecosystem are always on the rise. Malaysia is the 24th largest market for e-commerce and one of the most dynamic digital economies in Southeast Asia, as it records a constant increase in mobile commerce. Like any other third-world country, this modernization has exponentially grown and encouraged people to buy more and more.

Consumers who accepted a single popular product a few years back now have innumerable choices to choose the same product from different marketplaces. The competition lies in who can make that product the fastest available with the best pricing. Hence, sellers are now focusing on delivering to their consumers as quickly as possible. This approach demands multiple touchpoints to sell and store.

If you sell in multiple geographies, you’ll need to stock your product in several warehouses. This will guarantee two things: fast delivery to your customers as their order will be processed from the nearest warehouse. Second, low logistics cost: you don’t need to cover extreme distances. Let’s try to understand this through an example:

For instance, you sell Product A in Malaysia and Singapore. But you only have one warehouse in the country’s northern part. If you process all the Singapore orders from that warehouse, the hefty logistics cost will minimize your profit margins. Moreover, the consumer base in Singapore might not appreciate the longer delivery times. Then why not store your inventory at two places and process your orders accordingly?

This drives us to the question of how you will manage multiple warehouses located at different places. Let’s explore the answers to this question in more detail and the potential of how technology can streamline the multi-warehouse workflow for businesses in Malaysia.

Understanding What is Multi-Warehouse Management

To put it in simple language, selling on multiple touchpoints has become essential in Malaysia which involves:

Inventory control at a larger scale
Central management of the operations
Implementing robust logistics to handle the complexities of shipping both nationally and internationally

All these requirements are closely linked to warehouses. However, streamlining the workflow and logistics in such a scenario can be challenging. Here comes the Multi Warehouse management!

In technical terms, it is a practice of distributing and managing inventory across multiple storage locations. In descriptive terms, it is a central system that manages all the operational parts of the warehouse from one single central place. This includes the management of inventory, whether it’s stocking in or selling out. To optimize the storage, which is a very important part in the case of parent and child warehouses. The parent warehouse is the one that receives and stores the inventory and sends it to the child warehouses which are the distribution point for further operations.

For instance, marketplace warehouses like Shopee or Lazada have to be present in the central part of the country, Kuala Lumpur. Still, their presence is also essential near Singapore. This creates a challenge at different levels to manage and optimize logistics, inventory, order fulfillment, and shipping.

Challenges For Multi-Warehouse Management in Malaysia

1. Order Routing

One of the most basic needs of having a central system for multiple warehouses is to position your inventory closer to your customers. Other than Kuala Lumpur, if the order is received from the north or south extreme of the country, the processing shall be automated according to the proximity of the inventory available.

This is one of the key benefits for Malaysia, where marketplaces have coined the rule of processing orders within 24 hours of receiving them. This works effectively for faster deliveries and ensures order fulfillment along with happy customers.

2. Fragmented Inventory

Maintaining stock levels across different places manages the real flow of order fulfillment. Track your inventory right from receiving it in the warehouse and maintaining the stage of inventory replenishment. If you can see all the processes from one platform, managing the operations becomes ten times easier.

For instance, you have a parent warehouse in Kuala Lumpur, and the child warehouse in the north region has run out of SKU1 inventory. According to the cycle count, you will be notified accordingly before the inventory runs out. Additionally, you will be able to see all the products sold, to be sold, good or bad inventory, and the returned and damaged ones. Hence, you won’t have to get stuck into the calls and run after the record-keeping by people to get the updates.

3. Inefficient Order Fulfillment

In the game of selling, two elements are at its nucleus: inventory and accuracy. Most times, when an order is not fulfilled, the reasons are either related to the unavailability of the inventory or something is wrong with the accuracy of information. Accuracy plays a crucial role in the game of e-commerce selling, whether it is related to fetching order details or the number of inventory in your warehouse.

If you are not able to see the right alignment of your orders and inventory in the different warehouses, this can create everyday hassles and unsatisfactory customers.

4. Increased Operational Cost and Complexity

Business is about making profits and spending your costs smartly. When operations costs increase, it directly affects profits. Coordinating logistics, inventory, and order processing among multiple warehouses is challenging.

There is a very rare chance that you can maintain a similar workflow at different warehouses. If the inventory is at the parent warehouse, it is ordered from the southern corner. This happened because of the unavailability of the product at the child warehouse in the south. Then, people working there will communicate the instance to the parent warehouse if you are not able to see the centralized orders. Finally, the order will be processed with the additional cost of transportation and the extra time that the whole process took, along with the complexity.

Solutions for Effective Multi Warehouse Management

1. Implementing Robust Inventory

With the implementation of the multi-warehouse management system comes access to robust inventory in your warehouse. The main function of the warehouse is to maintain the inventory and process it according to the orders. And the good part is you have control of all of it. With one click, you can prevent the overstock of our stockouts. No more hide-and-seek with the products, locked with utmost accuracy and security.

You can ensure harmony in the warehouse with real-time tracking, cutting down on manual errors, and optimizing the space with no room for chaos, all despite your location. Sounds amazing, right?

2. Efficient Automated System Integration

This one is a secret weapon that propels the operations to the next level. The functioning of the e-commerce world relies on smooth communications among the different parts related to inventory, logistics, and order processing. Let’s say you can capture accurate orders and create a picklist according to the different categories like SKU, single or multiple products, priority-wise, etc. When the system communicates with the right packaging and logistics provider, it requires an efficient system.

You don’t need to worry about each step of the process, as your different systems are integrated well and function smoothly, reducing your operational costs and boosting your business’s efficiency.

Let’s Sync Your Multi-warehouse Set Up!

Finally, the booming Malaysian e-commerce market needs something that is not just trendy but a necessity of the times. By investing in the right solutions, you can master the art of operations in a few seconds.

Whether scaling locally or venturing into new countries and regions, a robust multi-warehouse strategy keeps your logistics smooth and efficient. Nothing like daily hassles would affect your business flow. Ready to conquer the e-commerce world? Get your warehouses in sync, streamline your logistics, and watch your business flourish! Happy selling!

Key Challenges and Opportunities in Malaysia’s Retail Sector

Chenxian Fu — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 07:04:38 +0000

Table of Contents

Introduction
Understanding Malaysia’s Retail Industry
Major Challenges and Solutions in Malaysia’s Retail Sector
1. Manual Dependency for Managing Warehouse Operations
2. Transitioning to Digital Retail
3. Creating a Seamless Omnichannel Experience
4. Logistics and Delivery Issues
Let’s Make Retail Selling Simplified in Malaysia

Whether you’re at bustling markets like Petaling Street in Chinatown or upscale malls such as Mid Valley Megamall, the retail landscape of Malaysia has a lot to offer.

But for sellers aiming to thrive in this highly competitive market, challenges and opportunities both await.

How can they make the most of this market?

What obstacles do they need to overcome?

Let’s dive into these questions by first understanding Malaysia’s dynamic retail industry!

Understanding Malaysia’s Retail Industry

The Malaysian retail market is considered one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing markets. This growth is driven by increasing internet penetration and the widespread use of smartphones and other smart devices. At the same time, more consumers are turning to the convenience of online shopping, and the number of online shoppers in Malaysia is continuously growing.

With this shift, we have also seen a digital transformation in the retail industry. If you’re a seller selling in Malaysia’s retail market, it has become imperative for you to adopt an omnichannel approach. This means you should start selling on multiple platforms, such as online marketplaces, D2C websites, and physical stores, to reach and engage with your consumers at every touch point.

[Elevate Your E-commerce Business with an Order Management System]

Major Challenges and Solutions in Malaysia’s Retail Sector

So, let us understand the major challenges and the solutions a retail business faces while selling in the Malaysian market.

1. Manual Dependency for Managing Warehouse Operations

Many retailers in Malaysia still rely heavily on manual processes to manage their warehouse operations. This is prone to errors and can lead to inefficiencies in the warehouse such as stock discrepancies, delays in order processing, and increased operational costs.

Solution: Malaysian retailers like you can benefit greatly from investing in automated warehouse management systems (WMS). These systems use advanced technology to streamline important processes like inventory tracking, order fulfillment, and logistics management.

2. Transitioning to Digital Retail

With more and more people buying online, traditional retailers in Malaysia face the major challenge of selling on the digital landscape. Marketplaces like Shopee, Lazada, and Zalora dominate the online shopping scene. Transitioning to these platforms involves more than just listing products; each marketplace has its own requirements that retailers must adapt to.

[Achieve Real-Time Inventory Sync with Advanced Inventory Management Software]

Solution: Sellers need to invest in technology for a smooth transition from offline to online business. They need advanced e-commerce enablement platforms that facilitate seamless order management, inventory tracking, returns management, and more for an efficient post-purchase journey.

3. Creating a Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Nowadays customers expect the products to be available everywhere be it browsing online or purchasing them in-store. This creates the need for real-time synchronization of inventory between the offline and online sales channels. In Malaysia retailers face this challenge of meeting consumer expectations for product availability and convenience across both online and physical stores.

Solution: To provide a seamless omnichannel experience to your buyers you need to leverage an omnichannel retail management system. With the help of this technology you can seamlessly enable automated updates of inventory levels across all sales channels. This minimizes the risk of stockouts and provides a cohesive experience to your customers.

[Accelerate Your E-commerce Growth with a Cutting-Edge Warehouse Management System]

4. Logistics and Delivery Issues

In Malaysia, delivering products efficiently can be a bit challenging because the country has very different landscapes and roads. Cities have good roads and easy access, but in the countryside, the roads are often bumpy and hard to travel on, making it difficult for shipping providers to reach these areas on time.

Solution: To tackle these challenges, retailers should integrate with third-party logistics that have extensive networks and expertise in Malaysia’s diverse geography. These logistics partners often have established relationships with local delivery companies, particularly in rural areas, ensuring more reliable and efficient delivery services.

Let’s Make Retail Selling Simplified in Malaysia!

The growing retail landscape of Malaysia presents a big opportunity for sellers to innovate and tap into the potential of e-commerce. Now is the perfect time to adopt new strategies and technologies that can take your retail business to new heights.

To survive in this highly competitive market retailers should embrace an omnichannel approach and using advanced tools. This will not only expand their market reach but also ensure superior service delivery and increased profitability.

So what are you waiting for? Start transforming your retail business today to seize the abundant opportunities!

Key E-commerce Challenges & Opportunities in Malaysia

Team Unicommerce — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 10:56:42 +0000

Are you a seller, retailer or brand selling in the Malaysian e-commerce market or someone who is planning to launch in the online space?

Is it becoming a real hassle for you to elevate your eCommerce business, manage the extreme online demands, meet the expectations of the consumers all while maintaining a smooth operational flow?

Well, you are not alone because the rapidly growing and immensely competitive space of e-commerce in Malaysia is not that easy to make a mark at, but is also not an impossible forte to make your mark on.

With the right technological solutions, proper operational procedures and well-established customer relations, the Malaysian e-commerce market space can be your breeding ground to success.

But how to move forward in the direction of achieving the above-mentioned objectives? This blog is your one-stop guide to all your queries, concerns and possible business strategies in order to achieve maximum growth with minimized errors and hurdles.

Also read: What is a Warehouse Management System and How Does It Work?

E-commerce in Malaysia

The e-commerce industry in Malaysia has seen a massive growth of US$ 4.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow up to US$ 8.1 billion by 2024!

Over 25 million, a total of 80% of the overall population of Malaysia are avid internet users and online shoppers, making the region a hotspot for e-commerce advancement and growth.

The government of Malaysia works around several dedicated ministries under the National eCommerce Council NeCC and programs such as the National e-commerce Strategic Roadmap NeSR in order to drive the upward curve of eCommerce in Malaysia and to increase the GDP contribution of the country.

After Singapore in the South East Asian region, Malaysia is the second-largest e-commerce market and the increasing number of middle- earning class in the country, internet users and constant investments of big eCommerce spaces such as eBay, Lazada, Zalora, Shopee, Carousell, etc., in the country, amplifying the choices and demands of online consumers, it is soon going to level up with Singapore in terms of eCommerce growth.

But with great opportunities, comes greater challenges and the same is the case with Malaysia where you as an eCommerce business owner will face several difficulties before you succeed in becoming a top seller in the regions.

E-commerce Biggest Challenges in Malaysia

While the e-commerce market in Malaysia is booming and becoming the first choice of local as well as international businesses to invest in, there may still persist some challenges in your road to success.

Talking about how strong the entire e-commerce ecosystem is in Malaysia and how the government is constantly working around plans and strategies to uplift sellers, retailers, brands, etc., the implementation of these policies and systems still require time and a little more push for proper implementation.

The ever-changing consumer demands is another hurdle that most e-commerce businesses in the country fail to adapt successfully and rapidly because of the lack of proper technological support and assistance right from accurate warehouse management to order and inventory management, providing Omnichannel solutions and more!

Biggest Challenges the Malaysian e-commerce businesses face may involve:

1. Managing Inventory & Orders

Malaysian retailers have struggled to adapt to the technological advancements going on in the eCommerce industry and their biggest hurdle in becoming a top online seller was to properly manage their inventory in order to serve the customer demands.

Leading Hardware company, ATKC Hardware found itself in a similar situation when they initially decided to take their business online. Coming from a small region of Malaysia, the company was looking to expand across the country and was hoping to take its brand to the next level.

The first step in the direction for ATKC Hardware was to execute accurate inventory management solutions in order for them to improve stock maintenance and provide better serviceability.

Faced with the crucial issue of managing their products, the brand decided to implement Barcode Inventory Management System to help them fasten e-commerce processes.

In absence of a proper inventory management software solution, your business can face severe problems right from maintaining stock freshness, enabling stock rotations, restricting stocks outs and dead stocks etc.

2. Handling presence across B2B and B2C selling platforms

One of the most common challenges faced by hundreds of e-commerce businesses including one of the well-renowned cleaning and sanitization product companies, Citycoin that sells its products under the name of Lovis, was to require proper product distributions and visibility to achieve sales growth for their businesses.

The brand struggled with selling its products on retail stores and offline channels and faced several financial challenges. The only solutions that helped them was to switch to online selling, which required them to integrate on leading marketplaces, carts, and online website to reach a wider pool of customers and to showcase their products better.

The brand listed its products on the leading marketplaces such as Shopee and Lazada which helped them attract more and more customers and significantly reduced their burden of deploying dedicated sales and marketing teams to take care of their sales.

Kacang Macha is another popular e-commerce FMCG seller in Malaysia that sells Halal Indian Snacks to Malaysian customers.

The company initially struggled to manage its presence across B2B platforms such as Alibaba, Daganhalal, etc as well as B2C spaces. Due to their exposure across these selling platforms, the brand has managed to overcome their challenges of taking their products across audiences.

And so, without allowing your products to reflect on multiple B2C as well as B2B eCommerce marketplaces, carts, etc., it will become an issue to gather customers and achieve higher sales.

3. Balancing Surge in Demands and Fulfilments

Another key challenge that eCommerce businesses face while transitioning and positioning themselves as rapidly growing eCommerce players is the effective management of warehouse operations to ensure faster order fulfilment rates and to supply in accordance to demand.

Herman Foods is a big name in the Malaysian eCommerce market that ships Malaysian ‘Musang King durians’ across borders. The brand ships across 18+ countries and has always wrestled with the need to balance their supply in terms of the demands they get for the Malaysian delicacy.

The brand has deployed tons of manual labour and adopted technological support in order to maximise their rate of order processing to provide higher quality exports to all the regions of their focus.

And so, not having the advanced technology assistance to tackle the evergrowing demands of the shoppers while carefully handling all your products can become a pain point for any business.

4. Tackling Manual Dependency for e-commerce Operations

When demands rise, e-commerce businesses are required to speed up their picking, packing, dispatch and delivery operations, but doing things manually can cause a lot of delays, errors, etc.,

Kait Lifestyle Store is an organic baby food company selling over 1000 products in Malaysia which struggled with managing orders and inventory manually while maintaining the freshness of all their products.

Without automation, taking care of each and every process of your order cycle can become really difficult and may lead up to poor customer service, lower customer loyalty, increased order cancellations and returns, all of which can severely impact your overall business growth.

While these challenges top the list of every e-commerce player or even the new ones starting their e-commerce journey in Malaysia, there can always be more business-specific and personal barriers each seller can face while trying to create a niche for themselves in the vastly expanding e-commerce space of Malaysia.

But for every problem, there is a solution and in the case of overcoming these challenges possessed by the Malaysian e-commerce market, the solutions are well proven and highly adaptable for any small to medium business with a little support and better business planning.

E-commerce Opportunities in Malaysia

Due to the massive development and government initiatives towards making eCommerce the biggest sector in Malaysia, the opportunity to become a leading online seller in Malaysia is huge.

1. Wider Access to Products Across Borders

The majority of the population of Malaysia consists of young, working-class, fashion and tech-savvy individuals who are constantly on the lookout for well-renowned brands, locally as well as internationally.

The consumers in Malaysia are a ‘Mobile-First’ audience with over 1.9 billion purchases made via a smartphone in the year 2019 alone and prefer to shop from apps and social media platforms rather than specifically from websites.

Due to their preference of shopping from smartphones, online shoppers in Malaysia have the ability to shop whatever from wherever irrespective of the origin of a product, right from the comfort of their homes, which plays a significant role in the success of eCommerce in the region.

2. Higher Trust of Consumers on Digital Payment Modes

If we talk about the consumer behaviour in Malaysia, It is evident to see that out of all the e-commerce markets around the world, South East Asia is one region where the consumers do not fear or are rather more comfortable paying for their products online and try to avoid physical payments or cash on deliveries.

This is a completely different and e-commerce positive behaviour that most of the other countries struggle to achieve but in Malaysia itself, online transactions and digital payments cover up over 93% of the total eCommerce payment methods, making this region a favourable space for big payment gateway companies such as PayO, Google Pay, PayPal, etc.

3. Greater Influence of Social Media

Social media holds a huge impact on the population of the entire South-East Asia, let alone Malaysia, where over 25 million people are active social media users. Online shoppers depend so much on the ratings, reviews and influencer feedback of each of the products they want to buy, that the distinction between an e-commerce platform in Malaysia and that of a social media platform is vanishing.

Social media platforms such as Facebook & Instagram have also added to the ease of shoppers as well as sellers to list their products to a bigger pool of audience, get real-time feedback on their products and work around effective sales strategies to grow and profit

4. Rapid Demands for Essential & Non-Essential Items

Essential products such as groceries and FMCG items have grown in demand in Malaysia as the country ranked 2nd in the list of fastest-growing grocery markets as per a Statista report in 2018.

Fashion & Beauty, Electronics, Toys, Furnitures etc are the most preferred non-essential categories that see increasing demands and have provided space to a number of eCommerce businesses to flourish in the region.

5. Better Geographical Conditions

In terms of shipping and logistics, South East Asian countries present tons of challenges as the topography is not favourable due to the entire region being a culmination of multiple small islands with vast forests but with Malaysia, the conditions vary as it is made up of two parts only and provides a rather smoother on land transportation opportunity enabling logistics and delivery companies to make higher profits here.

6. Greater Accessibility to E-commerce Enablement Solutions

With the constant rise of e-commerce, there also has been considerable growth seen in terms of technological and e-commerce enablement solutions in Malaysia. Internationally renowned e-commerce solutions providers have begun to shift their focus to the rapidly growing e-commerce market of Malaysia, providing sellers immense opportunities to render superior services with best in class supply chain solutions right from automated inventory, order and warehouse management, integrations to leading e-commerce platforms and much more.

In Conclusion

The future of e-commerce in Malaysia is bright and it is the perfect time for you to begin, advance and adapt to new methods and techniques of providing the best services to your customers.

Just by working your way with the right approach and with the correct technological assistance, you can grow your eCommerce business, provide superior customer services and experience higher profitability and productivity.

Want to find out more about the e-commerce market of Malaysia, check out our blog on the latest trends going on around the region and the most effective strategies and methods to follow in order to become a top seller in Malaysia.

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