Consolidating Your Technology Stack for Your E-commerce Store in Malaysia

What is a Technology Stack?

A technology stack definition states that it is a mix of tools, apps, and services needed to construct and run a single application. It encompasses a collection of integrated technologies to create and develop applications. A tech stack is designed purposefully, with each tier adding a substantial benefit through different but cooperating program types. It is a crucial aspect of every software development effort. A technological stack is a pyramid, with the base consisting of low-level system components and the tip consisting of the application’s user interface.

The front-end technology stack includes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, while the back-end technology stack includes servers, operating systems, programming languages, web frameworks, and databases.

When developing an e-commerce site in Malaysia, understanding the correct technology stack meaning is vital for success. This blog explains a detailed technology stack and the importance of choosing the right supply chain technology stack for top e-commerce solutions in Malaysia.

Benefits of consolidating your technology stack for an e-commerce store in Malaysia

Consolidating your technology stack for an e-commerce store in Malaysia can have several benefits:

• Improved website speed and mobile-friendliness
• Better readiness for economic uncertainty
• Improved security posture
• Reduced expenses
• Improved cross-department communication and alignment with company goals
• Enhanced customer-facing capabilities
• Streamlined automation technologies

Overview of the Current Tech Landscape in Malaysia

Malaysia’s ICT market is experiencing continuous growth, driven by significant investments across various industries. Since the outbreak, the information and communication technology (ICT) industry has witnessed exponential growth, contributing  22.6% of Malaysia’s GDP in 2021. By 2025, Malaysia’s digital economy is expected to contribute 25.5% of the GDP and generate more than 500,000 jobs. Blockchain, virtual reality, digital payments, 5G technology, and other emerging technologies are expanding quickly in Malaysia to support the digital transformation of all businesses. The ICT sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.6% by 2027, with a higher digitization of processes in all significant industrial sectors. With a projected 5.1% increase in global technology investment, Malaysia is well-positioned for technology-driven growth in 2023.

Malaysia’s digital ecosystem is rapidly developing, driven by substantial investments and growth across industries. The government and corporate sectors are embracing digital transformation, fostering the evolution of innovative technologies. Malaysia provides a robust digital ecosystem and infrastructure, offering a comprehensive platform for IT businesses seeking to invest and thrive in the country.

Popular platforms and solutions

Here are some popular platforms and solutions in Malaysia:

• Digital transformation: Malaysia’s government and commercial sector are adopting a country-wide digital transformation. The digitization of operations across all major industrial sectors will guarantee Malaysia’s participation in the future global economy.

• Startups: Malaysia has an increasing number of technological startups. Wellfound presents some of the greatest technology businesses and startups to work for in Malaysia.

• Digital center: Malaysia is presenting itself as a digital center of Asia. The nation’s sophisticated digital ecosystem and infrastructure offer a complete platform for IT businesses wishing to invest and thrive in Malaysia.

• Investment and growth: Malaysia’s digital economy has been swiftly reshaping the economic environment, with considerable growth and investment across varied industries.

Challenges of the existing solutions

There are still several challenges that need to be addressed:

• Digital infrastructure: Although Malaysia has made significant strides in building its digital infrastructure, some areas still need high-speed internet and other digital services.
• Cybersecurity: As technology is used more often, cyber assaults are more likely. Malaysia is very concerned about cybersecurity, requiring more precautions against cyberattacks.
  
• Regulatory environment: The regulatory climate might be challenging for international businesses intending to conduct business in Malaysia. Businesses may need help to handle the legal and regulatory environment as a result.
  
• Cost-competitiveness: Although Malaysia provides an affordable location for businesses, there are still issues with the country’s high operating costs. This includes expenses like hefty taxes and the price of labor.
  
• Acceptance of industry 4.0 technologies: Although Malaysia has attempted to deploy Industry 4.0 technologies, there are still issues with their adoption in the industrial sector. This addresses problems, including manufacturers’ ignorance of and misinterpretation of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Deciding on a Single Solution for Your E-commerce Store in Malaysia

When deciding on a single solution for your e-commerce store in Malaysia, there are several factors to consider:

• Consider usability and scalability: Look for e-commerce software to meet your company’s future needs.
  
• Look for reputable checkout and payment gateways: This is critical for building customer trust.
  
• Choose the best partner or technology: A solid technological foundation is required for a successful retail operation.
  
• Consider the following e-commerce issues in Malaysia: Challenges in adopting new digital technologies include low adoption rates, cybersecurity concerns, limited digital marketing skills, high shipping costs, and a lack of understanding of cross-border e-commerce regulations.

Evaluating the cost of integration & Return on Investment (ROI)

E-commerce is a developing business in Malaysia, with forecast revenue of $16,982.1 million by 2027. Here are some points to consider when analyzing the cost of integration and return on investment (ROI) for e-commerce enterprises in Malaysia:

• E-commerce platform vs marketplace: Third-party organizations administer online marketplaces, whereas the corporation owns e-commerce platforms. The e-commerce site operator handles everything from product promotion to payment processing, whereas online markets receive a cut of the profits.
  
• Challenges: The Malaysian e-commerce industry faces several challenges, including the slow adoption of new digital tools, cybersecurity threats, a lack of digital marketing skills, limited production capacity, high logistics costs, and a lack of knowledge of cross-border e-commerce and regulations.
  
• Despite the challenges, Malaysia’s e-commerce business is predicted to grow by 24.7 % in 2021, reaching $ 12.6 billion by 2024. As clients gain trust in your company, your ROI will rise.

Ensuring seamless integration with all channels & business units

To ensure seamless integration with all channels and business units for e-commerce businesses in Malaysia, the following steps can be taken:

• Use an enterprise integration platform to make e-commerce APIs available to various end systems, such as mobile phones, web apps, and other connected devices.
• Adapt the e-commerce platform to your company’s objectives. Additional APIs might be introduced, but doing so with an enterprise integration platform could be more accessible.
• You can provide excellent mobile e-commerce experiences by enabling real-time information interchange between the e-commerce platform, and other platforms within the e-commerce ecosystem.
• Identifying and addressing Malaysia’s e-commerce sector is challenging, such as the slow adoption of new digital tools, dealing with cybersecurity threats, high logistics costs, and understanding of cross-border e-commerce and regulations.

Building Your Digital Experience Platform (DEP)

In Malaysia, a Digital Experience Platform (DEP) serves as a software package that provides a one-stop-shop for designing, administering, and analyzing the success of a company’s digital communications, transactions, and experiences. DEPs in Malaysia offer a flexible platform to construct an utterly digital-first business, with APIs and interfaces that play along with whatever new system, program, or feature you want to add further down the road.

Optimizing user experience and product catalog for Malaysian consumers

Optimizing user experience and product catalog for Malaysian consumers can be done by following these steps:

Optimizing user experience

• Understand your users: Start by finding who your users are and what sort of gadgets they use to access your app. This data should be gathered and analyzed to discover which parts of the user journey require improvement.
  
• Conduct user research: User research plays a crucial role in understanding customers, their preferences, needs, and reactions of Malaysian consumers towards your products and services.
  
• Optimize the user interface: Once you’ve acquired all the info your users seek, you can start the UX design process. Ideally, your understanding of user data and usability should instantly drive your UX design.
  
• Ensure accessibility: A smart user experience designer sees that the best experiences adapt to everyone’s needs, whether improving for color blindness or providing a distinct accessible design.

Optimizing product catalog

• Communicate customer benefits: Clearly communicate your products’ unique benefits and value propositions to Malaysian consumers.
• Study successful e-commerce firms in your niche: Take note of their product pages. What do they do right? What might be improved? 
• Strike the appropriate balance: Ensure that your product pages strike the correct mix between technical knowledge and content that translates to a less tech-focused person.
• Ensure the proper quantity of detail: Provide enough detail about your items to enable people to make informed judgments, but it becomes manageable.
• Optimize product search: Use search algorithms that grasp the intent behind user queries and offer relevant results.
• Optimize product descriptions: Use natural language processing (NLP) to assess product descriptions and ensure they are suited for search engines.
• Use consumer input: Use customer feedback to enhance product descriptions, search engines, and product suggestions.

Personalizing experiences through email marketing & other channels

Engaging customers in Malaysia can be effectively achieved by personalizing experiences through email marketing and other channels. Here are some key points:

• Use real-time customer profiles: Personalize emails based on a real-time customer profile that updates when a consumer engages with your brand and moves in and out of various segments.
• Segment your audience: Segment your email list based on consumer behavior, demographics, and interests to offer more relevant information.
• Integrate email marketing with other channels: Align your email marketing with your website, social media, paid advertisements, and content marketing to build a unified and successful plan.
• Gather zero-party data: Use engaging experiences to obtain zero-party data, such as surveys and quizzes, to understand your consumers better and customize your marketing efforts.
• Optimize your data: Start improving your data and make every send into a tailored email.
• Use personalization to establish customer relationships: Personalization is the way to customer-centric marketing. Sending tailored communications connects better with clients and can help develop deeper relationships.
• Stay up-to-date on trends: Keep up-to-date on trends and ways forward for personalized marketing, such as new-age technology. 

Enhancing Security Measures to Protect Your Store’s Data

In Malaysia, the PDPA of 2010 sets guidelines for safeguarding individuals’ personal data in business transactions. You can make efforts to guarantee the integrity, reliability, and competence of personnel with access to personal data, including security measures into the equipment used to hold personal data and ensure the safe transmission of all such data. Maintain an inventory of who has access to your CMS and their administrator settings. 

Implementing best practices for data protection & security compliance

Here are some best practices for data protection and security compliance:

• The Personal Data Protection Standard 2015 (PDP) defines basic security measures.
• Describe the concepts of notice and disclosure, consent, data security, data quality, and access to personal data as they relate to data protection.
• Protect personal information against exploitation, destruction, alteration, unauthorized disclosure, or access.
• Verify that security precautions have been implemented for the personal data hardware.
• Increase public trust and confidence by maintaining enforcement.

Assigning a Team to Monitor and Manage Your DEP

Choose a DEP suited for the Malaysian market and a team to monitor and manage it. This team should ensure that the DEP is working correctly, tracking user input, and making any required changes to improve the user experience. The team should also remain current with industry improvements and advances to guarantee that the DEP stays appropriate and efficient.

It is crucial to instruct and support people in charge of handling DEP administration. This guarantees they have the knowledge and experience to manage and monitor the platform correctly. 

Understanding the roles and responsibilities of each team member

Managing a digital experience platform in Malaysia demands a diverse team, each employee providing profound expertise from their respective studio. The team should work together to establish a process and flow around simplifying experiences and improving procedures to fulfill consumer demands. Here are some roles and responsibilities of team members:

• Digital experience manager: A digital experience manager is essential to the team. They aim to ensure a company’s online profile is high quality, easily accessible and satisfies client demands. They work with all teams to create a process and flow around simplifying experiences and improving procedures to meet the expectations of Malaysian buyers.
  
• Enablement & innovation lead: An enablement and innovation leader is responsible for building a robust demand and resource management method that helps the leadership team execute the DEP plan in the Malaysian context.
  
• Marketing communications team:  In Malaysia, the marketing communications team is responsible for creating and implementing the marketing plan for the DXP. They seek to ensure that the DEP is successfully delivered to Malaysian customers and that the customer experience is uniform across all touchpoints.
  
• Social media team: The social media team in Malaysia manages the company’s presence and ensures that the DEP is appropriately conveyed to customers through social media channels.
  
• Web development team: This team builds and manages the DEP (Digital Experience Platform), ensuring its effective operation and a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints in the Malaysian market.
  
• Customer support team: The customer support team in Malaysia assists DEP users, ensuring their successful utilization of the platform and addressing any concerns promptly.

5 Ways To Increase Revenue With A Clean Marketing Tech Stack

Here are five ways to increase revenue with a clean marketing tech stack in Malaysia:

1. Peek into your marketing technology stack 

Take inventory of your marketing technology stack in Malaysia and discover which applications are helping your company’s overarching aim of increasing revenue. Trim down apps that aren’t contributing and consolidate several apps into a single point of data and functionality.

2. Focus on key data

The three crucial indicators to pay attention to are traffic, conversion, and average order value (AOV) specific to the Malaysian market. Find strategies to increase your revenue by using these indicators.

3. Organize your traffic strategy

Analyzing high-traffic and revenue-generating channels specific to Malaysia to refine your traffic strategy by focusing on the most profitable media sources.

4. Identify opportunities to boost conversions

Find possibilities to improve conversions by using data in the Malaysian market. For instance, you might use consumer data to create tailored marketing campaigns and track the necessary KPIs (key performance indicators). You could keep more customers and increase lifetime value by providing a superior customer experience.

5. Analyze your shopping carts

Analyze your shopping carts to uncover possibilities to boost income. For example, you might utilize data to understand which goods are commonly abandoned in shopping carts and build tailored marketing to encourage customers to finish their purchases. 

5 Reasons to Consolidate Your Security Stack

1. Be better prepared for economic uncertainty

Smaller businesses can better withstand economic uncertainties by integrating their security stack.

2. Improve your security posture

With the increasing cybersecurity threats businesses face in Malaysia, consolidating your security stack becomes crucial. Data from several systems are combined on consolidated platforms to speed up detection and response. Platforms provide crucial data that gives Security Operations Centers (SOCs) more actionable insights into threats and significantly reduce manual work. 

3. Reduce complexity

Malaysia’s business environment can be complex, and managing multiple security controls adds to this complexity. By grouping security controls into a single platform, consolidating your security stack may reduce complexity while enabling tighter, more effective security administration.

4. Offset staffing shortages

Like many regions, Malaysia may face staffing shortages in the cybersecurity domain. Consolidating your security stack can help you overcome workforce restrictions.

5. Optimize your security spend

Malaysia’s organizations strive to allocate their resources wisely. Consolidating your security stack enables you to optimize your security budget by eliminating redundant or overlapping solutions. 

Conclusion

By simplifying managing client inquiries, completing purchases, and analyzing data, you may enhance your website’s user experience and consumer access in Malaysia and clearly understand what technology stack means. Malaysia offers a dynamic and rapidly growing digital landscape, making it an attractive market for businesses. With a tech-savvy population and increasing internet penetration, Malaysian consumers have high expectations for seamless online experiences.

Integrating a robust technology stack is crucial to meet these expectations and stay competitive in the Malaysian market.

FAQ’s