RETAILERS today have begun to shy away from traditional e-commerce methods and turning to social commerce as customers become increasingly digital-savvy.
In an email interview with FocusM, Ninja Van Malaysia chief operating officer Lin Zheng explained that social commerce is essentially the process of selling products directly on social media, which mostly business-to-consumer (B2C) while e-commerce is a business model that lets businesses and individuals make transactions over the internet.
“(Social commerce) allows the brand to have a voice and relationship with their customers, but not all social media users are willing to buy on those platforms. The key is to find the right balance,” Lin said, adding that social commerce offers a higher profit margin and is more effective in terms of consumer engagement compared to e-commerce.
Regardless of who wins the which-method-is-better race, the pandemic acted as the catalyst that pushed businesses to their boundaries, forcing them to innovate while also paving the way for the creation of creative new businesses.
This is especially true for the logistics industry that began receiving massive traffic from both online and offline businesses when the movement control order (MCO) began in March last year.
In the case of Ninja Van, the company acted with the times and introduced new services and processes to adapt to the new normal.
Some of those efforts include improving delivery routes to optimise costs which resulted to lower prices for consumers, using data analytics to gain insight into market trends and providing an in-app photo-taking feature for the convenience of the drivers.
As more logistics companies adopt similar innovative measures, the industry has a more diverse set of clients compared to the pre-pandemic era.
“The logistics industry is made up of many different focus areas: first-mile, middle-mile, last-mile, warehousing, distribution, sea freight, air freight and more; all of which are crucial for businesses today as they diversify their dependence on traditional retail,” Lin explained.
“As such, we believe that the logistics industry extends beyond just e-commerce players and also benefits other industries such as pharmaceuticals, hi-tech (i.e. electronics) and more.”
On the topic of pharmaceuticals, Lin believes that the local logistics industry is ready for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, which has been expected to begin by the end of February 2021.
“The logistics industry is generally a multi-faceted industry that is big enough to be shared by multiple players. As such, we believe there are players within the industry offering cold-chain logistics services that are well-equipped to handle the vaccine distribution,” he opined.
However, as for Ninja Van, Lin said that the company will not be part of the distribution team handling the COVID-19 vaccines.
“While we do offer delivery services for medical devices that are not required to be stored in temperature-controlled environments, such as syringes and needles, cold-chain logistics is not an area of focus for us now. Hence, we will not be involved in the distribution of the vaccine,” he explained.
Moving forward, with the situation that the nation is currently facing, Ninja Van Malaysia aims to continue to strategically diversify its operations and fleet types moving forward to support the wider range of businesses that are making its transition online.
“We believe that our ability to adapt is our competitive edge and is what will continue to set us apart from the rest. After all, we have to embrace change and plan for the unexpected,” Lin concluded. – Feb 4, 2021
