| Danial Norjidi |
THE first business-to-business e-commerce platform in China, DHgate.com began a two-day bootcamp yesterday to train and upgrade local businesses on cross-border trade using e-commerce.
Held at the Institute for Leadership, Innovation and Advancement (ILIA) Building of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), the Cross Border E-Commerce Training (CBET) Bootcamp was organised by DARe (Darussalam Enterprise) in collaboration with DHgate and UBD. It was held for some 100 participants comprising owners and representatives of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as students.
Yesterday saw the workshop touch on the topics of cross-border e-commerce ecosystem, online marketing, product selection, global logistics and customer relationship management.
Tony Tao, the Vice-President of DHgate speaking at the opening, thanked Javed Ahmad, Managing Director/CEO of DARe and Soon Loo, the CEO of the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) “for organising this very meaningful event” which he said will introduce a very innovative new business model of cross-border e-commerce for SMEs in Brunei.
“In the past several years, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has reached a consensus that cross-border e-commerce is one of the best ways to empower SMEs to access the global market,” he said.
Tony Tao, Vice-President of DHgate. – PHOTOS: DANIAL NORJIDI
Javed Ahmad, Managing Director/CEO of DARe
Soon Loo, CEO of BEDB
Speaking on how can e-commerce help SMEs, he said, “At the end of 2015, the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business released a report about the benefit of e-commerce for SMEs, which says that around two thirds of e-commerce exports survive the first year of business, and exporting to around 30-40 different economies, comparing to the traditional trading companies, of which only one third survive year one, and only export to three to four economies.
“However, the biggest challenge for empowering SMEs to access the global market is the lack of awareness,” he continued.
“And that’s why I’m so glad that DARe and BEDB have the wisdom to acknowledge the trend and bring industry experts here to benefit all of you.”
“The CBET was initiated by ABAC (APEC Business Advisory Council) China to improve the awareness of the opportunities of cross-border e-commerce. Since then, we have trained around 1,000 of SMEs from over 10 APEC countries.”
He explained that the cross-border training session will bring industry experts give explanations on all sections of cross-border e-commerce, which include product selection, international logistics, cross-border payments, online marketing and services.
“In China, cross-border e-commerce has become a driving force for SMEs development. In 2013, China surpassed the United States to become the number one e-commerce market in the world,” he said.
“According to McKinsey, by 2025, around 22 per cent of China’s GDP will be contributed by e-commerce. E-commerce has changed their way of sourcing and selling. They can now source from any place in China and sell to almost any customers in the world.”
“So on the global stage, cross-border e-commerce and SMEs are having a marriage. I hope this two-day session can get you a brief understanding of the value chains in e-commerce and learn the best practices from real-life case studies and figure out how to integrate cross-border e-commerce into your daily business.
“At the end, I wish you all to embrace the changes ahead of us, take advantage of it and be successful,” he added.
The workshop will continue today with hands-on skills training on purchasing through an e-commerce platform and selling through a smart phone app.
Meanwhile, Soon Loo in his remarks said, “This is not just training, but the start of a great relationship between DHgate and Brunei.
“We have people who are very tech savvy. At one point we were ranked first for the most penetrated Facebook population in the whole of Asia. If you look at the rankings, it’s either Singapore or Brunei that are ranked top in terms of digital media penetration.
“So we are very excited to leverage the strength of our people together with the strength of our partners.
“The world is changing at a pace where opportunities are opening up. In Southeast Asia, the digital economy is opening up, and Brunei has an advantage. But this advantage is not something to be taken for granted, and is something that we have to heavily go into.” He said that it is “very fortunate” that “such a large contingency” of 10 experts from DHgate is in the country, and urged the bootcamp participants “to really learn from this”.
He highlighted the goal is not what will happen over the next two days, but whether Brunei has online sales at the end of the year. “That’s what we can aim for. If we do, I think we have many good opportunities for Brunei moving forward. If we don’t, we really waste the opportunity.”
“I would say for this generation, this is one of the best opportunities that we have on e-commerce. We look forward to a very successful collaboration between DHgate and Brunei,” he added.
Javed Ahmad in his welcoming remarks said, “I think we are really fortunate to have DHgate – one of the leaders in providing platforms for businesses to create a market platform where you will be able to do business on a global basis so that ultimately borders are no longer relevant.
“For this workshop, I’m most grateful to DHgate for sending such a large and diverse group of experts who will provide knowledge and share experience with you, not only theoretically but practically.”
DHgate was founded in 2004, with approximately 10 million global buyers from 230 countries and regions, with 1.4 million sellers offering 40 million products. The platform allows buyers to directly purchase and connect with global manufacturers from leading brands.
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