eCommerce market in Malaysia

Malaysia is the 20th largest market for eCommerce with a predicted revenue of US$24,501.6 million by 2024, placing it ahead of Vietnam. Revenue is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2028) of 9.9%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$35,703.0 million by 2028. With an expected increase of 12.7% in 2024, the Malaysian eCommerce market contributed to the worldwide growth rate of 7.4% in 2024. Like in Malaysia, global eCommerce sales are expected to increase over the next years. Seven markets are considered by ECDB within the Malaysian eCommerce market. Electronics is the largest market and accounts for 25.1% of the Malaysian eCommerce revenue. It is followed by Fashion with 19.7%, Hobby & Leisure with 18.0%, Furniture & Homeware with 11.8%, Grocery with 10.8%, Care Products with 7.7%, and DIY with the remaining 7.0%.

The online share refers to the proportion of the retail volume that is transacted via the Internet. It includes purchases via desktop PC, tablet or smartphone, both via website or app. Only retail of physical goods is taken into account. In the Malaysian retail market, the online share is 9.0% and will increase by an average of 5.6% to 11.2% by 2028.

The biggest player in the Malaysian eCommerce market is amway.my. The store had a revenue of US$247.7 million in 2023. Store rankings include every store that generates revenue in Malaysia. These stores can either have a national focus and only sell in their main country or operate on a global scale. For this evaluation, only revenue created in Malaysia was considered.

The Malaysian eCommerce market in 2023 in terms of offered payment methods is fragmented and dominated by a few providers with VISA (Cards) covering the largest share with 92.8% of all online stores checked. Other offered payment methods in the Malaysian eCommerce market in 2023 are Mastercard (Cards) with 91.9%, Bank transfer/cash in advance (Bank transfer) with 57.7%, and Invoice (unknown) with 47.7%. With 41.4% PayPal (E-wallets) has already a significantly smaller coverage compared to VISA (Cards).

Despite POS Malaysia's dominant position with 34.5% of online stores opting for its services, the Malaysian eCommerce market in 2023 remains diverse and competitive. Several other shipping service providers, including GDex, Ninja Van, DHL, and City-Link Express, hold smaller but significant shares, contributing to a dynamic and fragmented market.

Although Shopify holds a commanding lead with 23.6% of online stores using the shop software solution, the Malaysian eCommerce market in 2023 remains vibrant and competitive. This is due to the presence of several other shop software solutions, including WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, which collectively hold a significant share of the market.