There are generally 2 kinds of online stores / e-commerce platforms that Malaysians use.
The first are standalone .com stores (with your own brand).
These are great if you want to control the entire shopping experience, but may require you to handle your own marketing.
Standalone e-commerce stores Malaysians generally use:
1. Beepmix
Beepmix is a good choice as its free and super simple. What I like about it is that notifications and orders can be processed via WhatsApp, it comes with powerful cashback loyalty features to keep customers coming back, and you can do one-click local deliveries. Super convenient
2. Shopify
Shopify is a very powerful and reliable cloud-based e-commerce store that many people all around the world use. It has an abundance of features, templates, and very powerful analytics. The only drawback is it can be very expensive for users in Southeast Asia.
3. Wordpress + Woocommerce
Another popular choice among Malaysian online sellers who wish to have total control over their websites (and the source code). Wordpress + Woocommerce have lots of powerful features that are very customizable, but sellers have to set it up themselves (the other alternative is to pay big bucks to get someone to build the site).
The other alternative are regional marketplaces.
The pros are they come with huge amounts of traffic and SEO ranking, giving you a boost of potential customers. Not to mention many of them tend to give priority for new sellers.
Of course the drawback is that you'll never have control over your customer-base and the traffic.
Popular regional marketplaces Malaysians use to sell online:
- Shopee
- Lazada
- Zalora
- Grab (for food, groceries, and some shopping)
- Foodpanda (for food and groceries)
- Amazon (its becoming popular in Southeast Asia)