KUALA LUMPUR (May 28): Retailers and wholesalers have shown a promising trend of incorporating the usage of digital and e-commerce into their business plans over the past year, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said this encouraging trend was reflected in the annual online retail index, which had risen to a year-on-year sales growth rate of 23.8% in the first quarter of this year from 10.5% in the same quarter last year.
“Our economy has moved rapidly whereby the contribution of wholesale and retail trade has shown an encouraging growth,” he said during an online media conference today.
The wholesale and retail trade sector boosted its revenue from RM62.4 billion in 2015 to RM92 billion in 2018.
Meanwhile, online retail sales increased at a stronger annual pace from RM300 million in 2013 to RM1.2 billion in 2018.
Mohd Uzir said the sector’s rapid growth was a testament to Malaysians’ rising disposable income year after year.
“The retail sector is a catalyst for the nation’s economic growth; and based on research that was conducted, we are on the right track,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mohd Uzir said several sectors such as wood products, writing products, books and newspapers as well as iron ore and unprocessed metal were among the sunset industries identified.
Textile retailing, food, newspaper agents and food retailing are categorised as “the industry for survival”.
“Due to their shrinking revenue, these sectors require assistance, especially in terms of rental payment for their premises which represents a big portion of their operational cost,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the final statistics of the wholesale and retail trade sector which were compiled from the wholesale and retail trade census 2019 for reference year 2018, the country recorded a sales volume of RM1.27 trillion for 2018.
In a statement today, the DOSM said that in 2018, the number of establishments operated in the wholesale and retail trade sector numbered 469,024 with an annual growth rate of 4.8%.
Selangor had the highest number of establishments with 94,857, followed by Kuala Lumpur (71,433).
“The wholesale trade sub-sector was the largest contributor for total sales value of goods and services with RM663.7 billion (52.2%), followed by retail trade (RM459.9 billion; 36.2%) and motor vehicles (RM147.2 billion; 11.6%),” it said.
Meanwhile, computer usage in business rose to 89.6% in 2018 from 85.5% in 2013.
