Malaysia recorded 0.3% fall in sales value of wholesale & retail trade for December 2020
According to the latest wholesale & retail trade release by DOSM, Malaysia recorded wholesale and retail trade sales of RM115.5 billion in December 2020, down by 0.3% year-on-year (y-o-y). Meanwhile, the volume index of Wholesale & Retail Trade registered a growth of -0.7 percent year-on-year to record 133.8 points. The fall was due to Retail Trade and Wholesale Trade which decreased 2.9 percent and 0.02 percent respectively.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the negative growth was due to Retail Trade which contracted 2.0 percent (-RM0.9 billion). Similarly, Wholesale Trade also recorded a decrease of 0.6 percent (-RM0.3 billion). On the other hand, Motor Vehicles continued positive growth of 7.4 percent or an increase of RM0.9 billion.
As due to a four-week CMCO was implemented in Peninsular Malaysia except for Pahang, Kelantan, and Perlis, thus it has somehow impacted economic activities, especially in the Retail Trade subsector.
Retail Sale in Specialised Stores which include clothing and jewellery brand contributed the most to the fall with year-on-year growth of -6.2 per cent. It was followed by Retail Sale of Household Goods (-4.4%), Retail Sale of Cultural & Recreation Goods (-5.1%) and Retail Sale of Information & Communication Equipment (-1.3%).
Read More on Malaysian Economic Statistic Review at Department of Statistics Malaysia.
What is the next step for the traditional retailer?
In today’s digital age, consumers expect the ability to shop wherever and whenever. It is important for retailers to adjust their traditional retail business to online, digital-savvy shoppers and transform the entire experience.
Thus what is the next step for the traditional retailer in order to ensure their business continuity even though we are having movement control once again? The top areas that have been identified by most retailers as their top priority for strategic development:
- Price-aware consumers who know where to find the best deals in town.
- Online shopping complements the retail experience.
- Coordination point for purchase. Staff can track stock and find innovative
ways to make shopping in-store more satisfying and convenient.
- Manage stock, take orders, track progress, and process payment from tablets and mobile devices
- Collect and analyze sales data to improve consumer experience, market effectively to consumers, and drive sales
- Responsive supply to meet demand as efficiently as possible.
- End to end visibility in supply chain is important.
Traditional Strategy
Company centered:
- Company defines product and channel.
- Company tends to focus on product quality and cost as well as channel dominance (market) in an effort to cover a broader client base and achieve more sales
New Retail Strategy
Customer-centered:
- Company provides products and experience.
- New retail strategy should focus on consumer engagement, such as user base, customer stickiness, traffic, interaction, and experience to improve sales conversion rate.
The New Retail Resolution Online to Offline O2O
In the era of New Retail, shopping channel boundaries are no longer necessary and getting vaguer; traditional retailers need to change their mindset and transform traditional sales channel management into a seamless omnichannel service model
New Retail Impact on Supply & Value Chains
