KUALA LUMPUR: Sixty-seven per cent of Malayan Banking Bhd's SME customers have leveraged digital technology into their sales platform during the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0.
Maybank said this was among the findings of a survey involving its SME customers.
The bank said the 67 per cent respondents made up 84 per cent of the bank's borrowing SME customers.
Maybank community financial service group chief executive officer Datuk John Chong said the group initiated the survey to analyse and resolve the pressure points faced by them.
"Since SMEs are the nation's economic backbone, employing almost half the workforce and contributing close to 40 per cent of Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP), it is critical that we render appropriate assistance – not only through financing but also other areas such as enhancing their digital presence, operational efficiency and so on.
"Maybank has the capabilities in these areas such as through our digital payments and Sama-Sama Lokal platforms, as well as online Biz apps and financing capabilities which can boost SME businesses with minimal or no cost.
"Now that we have granular data from our survey, we will offer our SMEs the appropriate help to leverage the opening up of the economy and to meet the pent-up demand that is expected to emerge in the coming months," Chong said in a statement today.
Despite opportunities offered by digital technologies, the survey showed found the remaining 33 per cent of SMEs were unable to adopt digital technology due to various factors.
This includes the nature of their businesses not being suitable for online platforms, lack of technical knowledge, high cost of implementation and unsuccessful attempts in using digital platforms.
The survey also revealed that during MCO 3.0, SMEs experienced diverse business challenges as a result of the large-scale economic disruptions.
The challenges ranked by order include a drop in demand (34 per cent), a delay in receivables (31 per cent), a shortage or delay in obtaining supplies (18 per cent), adapting to new operations and processes (11 per cent) and insufficient workforce (six per cent).
In terms of impact to sales during MCO 3.0, 61 per cent of respondents experienced a decrease in sales, 25 per cent saw sales remain unchanged while 14 per cent reported better sales due to their agility in business strategy and quick response to market needs.
The Maybank survey was undertaken in September and October, and was part of a broader exercise undertaken for non-retail and corporate customers in Malaysia.
It was to fully understand how MCO 3.0 had impacted SME customers in five categories – financial, technology, business, supply chain and people.
Source: https://www.nst.com.my/business/2021/11/746218/two-thirds-maybanks-sme-customers-leverage-digital-technology-sales-platform