A new report by yStats.com, a market research company based in Hamburg, Germany, finds that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce in Malaysia is expected to maintain rapid growth, supported by a relatively developed logistics infrastructure and substantial internet penetration rates by regional standards.

Malaysia ranked second in Southeast Asia in internet penetration and had the highest logistics performance index in its region and income group in 2014. With the infrastructure being relatively advanced, B2C ecommerce in Malaysia has a potential to grow rapidly at double-digit rates over the next five years. The online share of total retail sales is projected to increase more than five-fold over the same period from just over one percent in 2013.

An important characteristic of the Malaysian B2C E-Commerce market is that convenience is the key motivation for consumers to shop online. The main discouraging factor is lack of interest in online shopping, holding back the majority of over three-quarters of internet users who do not yet make purchases online. Another interesting fact is that food and beverage was the second most popular product category in online shopping in Malaysia, purchased almost as much as clothing.

A healthy double digit share of online purchases in Malaysia was reported to come from cross-border sales last year. Global ecommerce websites Aliexpress.com,  Alibaba.com and Amazon.com are among the top 10 most visited online shopping websites in Malaysia. The leading local and regional players include online classifieds website Mudah.my and online retailer and marketplace Lazada.com.my. A newcomer is the ecommerce marketplace 11Street.my, launched by Korean companies SK Planet, and Celcom Axiata Berhad, which in a matter of a few months became one of the most visited online shopping websites in the country.