The fastest e-commerce website in Malaysia, and recognized for processing high volume of transactions within short time with the logistics system integrated with e-commerce, for the top e-commerce website in Malaysia -> blooming florist.
We are proud to say that, Wavelet is the software developer behind the scene.
ps. Wavelet logo is at the bottom left hand corner of the page ;-)
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Source: http://www.star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/9/20/itfeature/18922150&sec=itfeature
Please see the ones highlighted in red below:
Challenges and hurdles
By CHRISTY LEE S.W.
Thursday September 20, 2007
THOUGH e-commerce has been around in Malaysia since the mid-nineties, it is still in its infancy stages even today, said Martin Cheah, Blooming.com.my's managing director.
"Compared to countries like Hong Kong and Europe, we have a lot of catching up to do," he said.
The Malaysian broadband infrastructure also leaves much to be desired.
"Broadband access is critical for the growth of e-commerce here. If you set up an online retail store, you'll want to put many pictures of your product for your customers to see," said Richard Tan, managing director of Interbase Resources Sdn Bhd, the company that runs local online auctioneer Lelong.com.my.
"If you're using dial-up, these pictures will take too long to load, and that would make it less convenient to shop online," he said.
Referring to Alexa.com, Rodney Koh, creative director of XL-Shop Dot Com Sdn Bhd, said that Malaysian websites hosted locally are at least 70% slower than other websites around the world.
"It'll be hard for us to compete with other e-commerce sites on a global level if our pages take too long too load," he said.
At press time, the fastest site of the bunch is Blooming.com.my – it takes an average of 1.7 seconds to load, and is faster than 63% of the websites around the world.
Credit card woes
Another big issue is the lack of an easily accessible online payment system.
"It is very difficult for an e-commerce merchant to apply for a credit card transaction service to include in their website," said Tan.
He said financial institutions only approve certain sites that are established, which is a serious stumbling block for upstarts.
Koh agreed that the credit card facility in Malaysia is still immature.
"We had to resort to using services from an overseas credit card company, and this forces us to charge in US dollars," he said.
He said his company would occasionally come across a credit card fraud case.
"But the percentage is still small enough that the business is still worth doing," he said.
Koh said he also maintains a PayPal account, but any money that goes into it has to be spent online because it does not allow withdrawal in Malaysia.
Tan believes that financial institutions should look at what other overseas companies do mitigate the problem.
He said e-commerce merchants should also be careful when dealing with suspicious orders.
"The Government also has a role to play in this. It has the authority to pass laws and legislations – so that criminals involved in fraud are punished – it serves as a deterrent to the rest," said Cheah.
Comfort zone
These factors have been blamed for the majority of Malaysians still uncomfortable about shopping online.
According to MPH's Kee, Malaysians generally shy away from buying products online because they think it isn't safe.
"Also, you can't really see or hold the product in your hand, and the payment process is usually complicated," he said.
The challenge, said Tan, is in getting the public to get past their fears of fraud and to trust online transactions.
"We have yet to build a culture where people are comfortable and confident in buying and selling products online," he said.
He said credit card fraud should not be used as a reason to shy away from the service.
"If you buy something online and you do not receive your order, you can always call your bank to cancel the transaction," he said.
"In fact, it is even easier for credit card fraud to occur offline," he added.
Tan believes that Malaysia is still far behind in online retail.
"Three percent of the total retail sales in the United States comes from e-commerce.
"If e-commerce (excluding online ticketing sales) was 3% of the retail sales in Malaysia, which amounted to RM59.5bil last year, it would be more than RM1bil – and we're definitely behind that," he said.
He said Malaysia needs more players to create a larger community of buyers and sellers.
"The more companies there are involved in e-commerce, the more comfortable the public will be when it comes to shopping online," said Tan.
Unique problems
In addition to these common issues, each company also faces problems that are unique to their own businesses.
For example, Blooming.com.my probably faces the biggest challenge compared to the rest when it comes to packaging and transporting its products.
Its main product, flowers, need to be kept refrigerated to maintain freshness.
"Unlike products like books, flowers do not take a certain shape which you can box up and deliver just like that," said Cheah.
Kee said MPH Online faces a challenge in getting Malaysians excited enough about buying books.
"The book industry here grows quite slowly, due to the lack of a strong reading culture in Malaysia," he said.
For XL-Shop.com, taxation is an issue.
"Unlike Hong Kong and Singapore, our imports are taxed, so this puts us at a disadvantage where pricing is concerned," said Koh.
