Asia Blockchain Review recently caught up with Ganesh Kumar, founder of Commerce.Asia, MOL Access Portal, Immediate Past Chairman of PIKOM and Board Member of the Malaysian Global Innovation And Creativity Centre (MAGIC).

Ganesh Kumar will be one of the speakers at The Virtual Hash Asia Summit 2020 on the 17th and 18th of June 2020, which is all about ‘Harnessing Transformation During Adversity For SMEs Through Holistic Development’.

Asia Blockchain Review (ABR): Tell us about the journey at Commerce Asia. How has it been so far? It must be something to grow Commerce.Asia within 3 years to own a database of over 8,000,000 SME’s across 7 countries with over 61,000 sellers that sell RM1.5 billion (USD375m) worth of products. What’s next for this company?

Ganesh Kumar (GK): It’s been an extremely fulfilling journey and we continue to enjoy the ride. In a three-year journey we’ve acquired more than ten companies. Recently, Commerce.Asia emerged as the Top Winner of the APAC CIO Outlook Awards for being the “Best E-commerce Consulting/Services Company in APAC 2020” among the selected Top 10 companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

The movement control order (MCO) has demonstrated the importance of enablers to cater for the demand increase in e-commerce. It’s difficult for brands to manage on their own with increasing e-commerce consumer demand especially during the MCO.

This is where Commerce.Asia comes: We had set ourselves the high bar of being the region’s most reliable outsourced/managed services provider to enable merchants to get a bigger share of increased consumer demand, and to ensure that they have the fulfilment capabilities to cope with increased demand.

Our group’s end-to-end, one-stop solution enables brands and businesses to sell online, while managing all aspects of their online businesses from developing their own online stores to managing product sales across multiple e-marketplaces such as Lazada, Shopee, Lelong, PrestoMall, Amazon and eBay.

What’s more, we cover aspects of e-commerce that businesses often have to struggle to learn, including warehousing, payment, delivery, marketing and order management. It’s a commitment to truly removing the stress of working with technology for businesses that may not be so tech-savvy.

ABR: Finally, what do you see in your crystal ball? What’s on the horizon for your company and the state of affairs in general? How do you think Malaysia has been coping so far with all the trials and tribulations that we have going on?

GK: I think Malaysia has been coping well. The government has been more supportive than ever and placing greater emphasis on digital transformation and e-commerce while unveiling the National Economic Revitalisation Plan (Penjana) earlier this month.

Among Penjana initiatives is the RM140 million in matching grants under MDEC for technological training, seller subsidies and sales assistance, via a RM70 million allocation from the government that will be matched by the private sector.

Online shopping is now a substantial part of the ‘new norm’ with more Malaysians shifting their spending habits towards online platforms. It was a visionary stance as, from the business perspective, e-commerce is a major avenue for companies to future-proof their business models.

Of course in the future, it’s not just from Malaysia where our market is. We are also looking to expand regionally. The next six to twelve months could turn out to be challenging for certain aspects of the Malaysian economy as we have not really felt the real downturn caused by COVID-19  yet.

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About the author

Anil Prabha

Editor In Chief

Anil started his career in journalism all the way back in 2003. After traversing the sphere of editorial, corporate communications and advertising, he has now come full circle and is back in the world of journalism. He believes in the power of the written word, and its ability to enthrall, delight and inform the reader.