Tag: commerce platform

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has announced that it will be making its Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) feature in Malaysia, following the foray of its subsidiary Pine Payment Solutions, a payment platform in the country and the success of its offline BNPL solution in India.

The expansion comes at an interesting time when there is pent-up demand among consumers after a prolonged period of lockdown; consumers want easier access to credit and merchants are looking for newer ways to revive sales.

Pine Labs is providing a tech-first offline payments solution where on a single terminal, multiple credit issuers can make BNPL offers to customers. 

Pine Labs’ BNPL launch in Malaysia will further accelerate digital payments adoption in the country and make it possible for merchants to sell more in this tough business environment post the pandemic.

Some of the available banks in the platform include CIMB Bank, AmBank, HSBC Bank, AFFIN BANK, and RHB Bank. 

“It is an excellent product and a win-win proposition for everyone involved including consumers who get affordable buying options, merchants who are getting an enticing proposition to woo customers back to the stores and boost their sales, and banks and brands who get to build their brand loyalty,” said Kush Mehra, chief business officer at Pine Labs.

He also mentioned that their recent partnership with financial services Mastercard will enable them to expand across other markets.

The company has ambitious plans as well to launch BNPL in the rest of the Southeast Asia markets. Late last year, Pine Labs had announced its intent to launch an integrated pay later installment solution in partnership with Mastercard to markets like Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – “#EveryoneCanTrade” – this is the catchphrase of the newly-launched MeCan Trade commerce platform that promises to allow merchants to conduct business absolutely free.

The recent platform launch is in response to the rising unemployment rate in Malaysia, and the perils that traditional and big industry business players face in the mid of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New statistics have shown that more people are venturing online to earn income, as shown by Statista where about 81% of the Malaysian population are active social media users. This is about a 1/3 increase compared to 2016, in which the social media users amounted to approximately 60% of the total population in Malaysia. 

“MeCan Trade enables you to have your very own business by providing you your very own personalized e-store instantly with just a few clicks, for absolutely free. You will be able to offer a wide variety of original products directly from product owners. It has no risk, no capital, 100% genuine and unique products with instant set-up which is completely free for life. All the provision of stocks/products, inventory/payment gateway, back-end logistics, delivery system etc from A to Z will be taken care of by MeCan Trade for the Ambassadors,” the company said in its press statement.

MeCan Trade is the brainchild of former founder of restaurant chain OldTown, Andy Goh. Goh believes that as e-commerce has taken the ‘world by storm’, local entrepreneurship can go beyond conventional borders.

“From a business perspective, traditional ways of doing business have become harder – involving competition, product quality, logistic arrangements and sustainability. There is a paradigm shift using technology & big data efficiency to rebuild and transform suffering business owners through this difficult period,” Goh stated.

He added, “The core value for MeCan Trade is to share the wonders of what technology can do to improve, accelerate and re-invent new business ideas. We already have all the resources in place, we just have to collaborate and execute.”

Through the MeCan trade platform, three opportunities are being offered:

  • Sellers/Brand Owners – Sellers now have a platform to perform business recovery, consolidate enough data, tools and resources put together to start a business instantly, without being burdened by hefty expenses. The seller’s role is pretty straight-forward; list with MeCan Trade and use the system that allows full transparency, product price control, marketing tools and access to over 1000 fleet of sales force to sell your products.
  • Buyers – Bulk buying options by tiers, where MeCan Trade will connect these interested buyers to reliable, safe and trustworthy manufacturers.
  • Ambassadors – A MeCan Trade ambassador can earn passive income and become an entrepreneur by directly engaging with the source of the product.

MeCan Trade currently supports over 200 brand owners and manufacturers with over 2,000 products available with more than 1,000 ambassadors and counting, and Goh hopes that by the end of next year, they hope to achieve over 5,000 ambassadors and more than 20,000 products on the platform.

As part of its e-commerce initiative, MeCan Trade has also launched a 2 year #MeCanBoss Program with a total investment valued up to RM15.75 mill to nurture social commerce entrepreneurs. Said program gives incentive to coached ambassadors, while top performers will be given capital and guidance to start and develop their very own product,

“We provide a journey to aspiring local entrepreneurs in generating a self-sustainable income or passive income by trading online with credible, in-demand products from Manufacturers or Authorized Distributors. Business owners or individuals that are interested to come and list their reputable products or join this campaign can sign up at MeCan Trade on our official platform,” Goh concluded.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Local-based lifestyle e-commerce platform Poptron has secured US$1M investment from its recent seed funding, which will be used to further connect its partner micro and emerging brands to global users.

The platform aims to extend its operations to Singapore by the first quarter of 2021. The investment will be put into developing and releasing a second version of the platform, projected to be finished by January this year.

Established in September 2020, Poptron offers microbrands selling high-quality, natural, and eco-friendly products or artisanal goods, a platform to be connected with global users. Since then, 100 microbrands with more than 700 different types of product listings have since come on board, ranging from personal care, fashion items, arts and crafts, to pets necessities and home & living products.

“Before the Movement Control Order (MCO), I used to frequent local arts bazaars and discovered a lot of interesting, high-quality products from small brands and businesses. Due to the pandemic, bazaars came to a halt, so these brands are depending on online sales, usually gathered from various social media platforms like Facebook & Instagram. Online demand generation became a critical area of focus, and it became quite evident that securing new customers online isn’t as easy as it seems,” said Brian Johnson Lowe, founder of Poptron.

Poptron’s main proposition is helping sellers overcome key pain points in customer acquisition, business management, and regional growth by using a single platform to handle everything from inquiries to shipping. Users can also discover, follow, and shop through a practical and intuitive user interface while tracking each delivery straight to their doorstep.

“With Poptron, we hope to gather all these brands in one place for consumers to discover, our idea is to prove the value of this unique platform and increase the business returns of our merchants first. Being able to make the strides that we have during the course of this year is a testament to the drive and passion of the team,” Lowe added.