Future of E-Commerce in Myanmar
**This is a guest post written by SoSo Aung. It shows great insight into how fast Myanmar is growing and developing.**
A few years ago, Myanmar could not even be seen on the E-commerce map due to the lack of infrastructure and awareness. In the current age, a number of reasons and situations have fueled the rise of the E-Commerce industry in the country. Now, a rising number of people opt to buy online rather than going to the stores. Along with this and the new era of digital technology has made many brick and mortar stores along with many startups jump on the bandwagon of E-Commerce.
What is E-Commerce?
E-commerce is considered to be a platform where buyers and sellers can interact for different products. The seller posts and ad on the platform and the buyers respond to it. Many of them provide online payment facilities via credit cards or bank transfers and many opt to go with the cash on delivery system. Many marketplaces in Myanmar use this for their payment system.
Trends in Myanmar and the growth of E-Commerce
There are many reasons that can be attributed to the growth of the E-Commerce industry in Myanmar. Many of these include friendly government policies, reforms regarding the political, social and economic scenario coupled with a huge wave of economic development.
If we look at it closely, there are basically two reasons why the growth has increased to an astounding amount. The first one is the youth population of the country. According to Tech in Asia, there are around 51 million in this age bracket and who are constantly in search of new technology to use. They have made a radical change from using modest phones to jumping on to tablets and smartphones in a time span of months. Along with this, comes the idea of having online businesses which are on the rise.
The second reason is the internet penetration rate. According to Myanmar Guardian, this rate was 10% in the year of 2012 – 2013 and it is expected to reach 80% by the end of 2016. If we look at these figures, we can safely that Myanmar is and will be a home ground to many E-commerce ventures.
Future Prospects of E-Commerce in the country
When it comes to the future, the first thing that needs to be done is changing the habits and the mindset of the people in the country. The very important thing here is to gain the trust of the people of the country to grow the number of online shoppers. This can be done by proving good quality products in a timely and effective manner. Not only will this increase the number but it will boost loyalty levels as well.
The trends and the current situation has shown that the youth is ready and accepting the online shopping trend but along with this, there should be more emphasis laid upon the senior citizens of the country. Some of them do see the benefit of sitting at home and ordering what they like.
There needs to be a greater amount of awareness to increase the rates of shoppers.
Moreover, two of the Telecom giants namely Telenor and Ooredoo have established themselves in the country. This will give a rise to the current infrastructure of the country and increase the facilities available.
Overall, the E-Commerce trend is here to stay and by the looks of it, Myanmar will soon become one of the most dominant areas when it comes to this industry.