Driving new retail concept
Event to familiarise small businesses with online-to-offline approach
THE emergence of the digital economy is blurring the lines between online and offline retail. Companies need to look at using both online and offline strategies to enhance the business, says Secretariat for the Advancement of Malaysian Entrepreneurs (SAME) chief executive officer Neil Foo.
“This is the ‘new retail’ concept that is advocated by Jack Ma,” he explains.
Foo notes that there are five new concepts put forward by Ma, namely new retail, new finance, new manufacturing, new data and new energy, which he says will disrupt how businesses will operate in these fields.
In the last year or so, SAME has been carrying out various education efforts to encourage SMEs to look at new ways of financing including venture capitals and equity crowdfunding. Now, the agency will focus on driving the concept of new retail in Malaysia, says Foo.
“This is the future of the industry,” he adds.
SAME, along with Federation of Malaysia Chinese Guilds Association (FEMACGA), will be organising the first Asia Retail & O2O Conference and Expo 2017 on Sept 12 to encourage small businesses to embrace the change in the retail industry and to spur SMEs to move online.
The expo will also serve as a platform to bring together SMEs and the hypermarket sector to drive the retail industry.
The conference will feature