11street, the new online marketplace in Malaysia, unveiled its ‘Seller Zone’ – the first education centre and support facility in Malaysia catering for e-commerce business coaching, training and development programs to foster the local online sellers’ population growth.
The Malaysian version of 11street is hosted by Celcom Planet, a joint venture company between SK Planet (51%) and Celcom Axiata (49%). SK Planet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of mobile operator, SK Telecom.
Located at 11street’s office based in Menara Nu, KL Sentral, the 11stree Seller Zone is equipped with professional photography studios, training centres, and a public lounge for networking, relaxation and refreshment. Built over a total floor area of 9,500 sq. ft. the e-commerce education centre and support facility is primarily designed to provide e-commerce coaching workshops, training and development programs.
11street’s Chief Executive Officer, Hoseok Kim shares that there won’t be any fees for sellers to be part of and get listed on 11street.
The company unveiled a number of its partners and sellers at the launch including HTC, Huawei, Hong Leong Assurance, Sharp, Borders, SenQ, The FaceShop, among others. While some of these brands already have an online presense, Kim reponded to MalaysianWireless saying that it needed to build a trustworthy platform with consumers. “By inviting these big brands, this will help consumers to trust our platform,” he said.
When asked about what type of SMEs the company is targeting, he responded “We are an open market platform, we welcome any kind of sellers”.
Kim points out, “In Malaysia, the population of small and midsize business (SMB) doing online business is forecasted to grow by 400 percent – Which suggests that at least a quarter (25 percent) of the existing SMBs will venture into online business within the next 10 years to grow from the current base of a mere 5 percent.”
“The rapidly increasing population of online SMB is coherent with the e-commerce economy that is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32 percent. Undoubtedly, education will be the most crucial element to nurture the triple digit healthy growth of the SMB e-commerce ecosystem.”
11street has teamed up with MDeC and Google Malaysia for training and development programs.
Kim continues, “For the start, online business coaching workshops, training and development courses will be conducted at least twice a day with a maximum of 20 pax per session.”
“These complimentary courses don’t just educate, but also share on how online sellers can seamlessly integrate their businesses onto 11street platform. Some regular courses include integrated marketing for online business, product photography etc.”
“In the later part of 2015, we will set up satellite Seller Zone in remote areas to benefit online sellers that are based out of Klang Valley. The training courses’ frequency are also set to increase whenever the participants’ demands arise.”
The 11street online marketplace is set to launch in April 2015 in Malaysia, targeting 11,000 sellers by year end. 11street said more than 35million Malaysian Ringgit (USD 10million) will be invested this year in various seller development programs, marketing and promotions.
