While many market research reports have noted how Malaysia’s overall exports grew by 2.4%, the Cross Border Insights 2013 study has revealed that online exports from Malaysia’s on its payment platform saw strong growth of 29% year-on-year (YoY).
According to PayPal, cross-border trade, which is projected to reach over US$307 billion by 2018, represents a quarter of PayPal’s current business.
“This data underscores the opportunities for local businesses to extend their reach and go where the demand is – the millions consumers around the world – without incurring the cost of traditional geo-expansion,” says Audrey Ottevanger, Country Manager for Malaysia and Philippines, PayPal.
Based on the report, PayPal merchants in Malaysia saw healthy, double digit growth for top online export corridors: the US (20% YoY), Australia (50% YoY), Singapore (38% YoY), the UK (18%Y0Y) and Canada (26% YoY). This data is in contrast to single-digit or declining growth in Malaysia’s overall top export corridors last year – Singapore (5.1% YoY), China (9.2% YoY), Japan (-4.4% YoY), United States (-4.5% YoY) and Thailand (6.1% YoY).
It also reveals that ASEAN countries are among the fastest growing PayPal Malaysia export markets in 2013 – Brunei Darussalam (96% YoY), India (78% YoY), China (58% YoY), Indonesia (56% YoY) and Hong Kong (55% YoY).
All these data highlights how Malaysian merchants exporting online are able to tap into traditionally bigger consumer markets with larger populations of technologically savvy online shoppers.
As the internet transforms the face and form of retail, cross-border shopping is, according to Ottevanger, expected to rise.
“This presents a clear opportunity for local businesses in Malaysia to embrace e-commerce in order to create new opportunities and become competitive players in the global marketplace. The international demand we are seeing from this report is an obvious signal to businesses in Malaysia that they need to look for new ways to grow their sales over local borders,” she adds.
