2 new Free e-commerce templates just being added to the beautiful ecommerce store selection!!!

Melody Boutique

bizStore only – see melody boutique template

miniNight

miniStore, sohoStore or bizStore – see miniNight template

Like the designs we offer? Just imagine it could be yours once you put your logo up.

Why wait? Own it now!

Just subscribe to webShaper Stores – From as low as RM 1 per day and start selling online now.

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Are you interested in tapping into “Social Media Marketing” to help drive traffic to your online store? Here’s USD 50 “Free Money” for you to advertise your webstore at facebook.

66KT-39T1-F56K-5N9N
Coupon Value $50 – March, 2010
(Works for New Advertiser Account Only)

Hold on… do you know apart from utilizing the coupon to start off advertising and bring traffic directly to your own e-commerce store, there’s a better way to use this coupon?

Try create a facebook page and use the coupon to promote your facebook page and get the those who interested to sign up and become your fans.

Reason of doing so? Easy, once they become fans. you can keep them in the loop of your latest events, new product launching, special facebook-fans-only, throw in competition and more!!!

The key is to continuously engage those who show interests (or who already bought) from you and grow them into a loyal customers base, there’s no other easier way than a facebook page. (Assuming your targeted markets are on facebook, of course).

Learn more below on how to utilize facebook page to help you easily interact with your prospects and customers. Enjoy! Have other tips, do share with us below:

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Time flies, year 2009 is whispering good bye to all of us now.  We hope you have a great time spent with friends and families. After all, isn’t this is what life is about? Cherish the moment with your loved one.

It’s a good time to sit back, relax, take a deep breath, do a review on what have been achieved (also what have not )  during the course of 2009. Let’s learn from our mistakes, make sure it won’t be repeated. Last but not least, Start setting new goals for 2010!

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Make no mistakes, although we don’t work on MACs (we are pc junkies since early junior years), but we salute Apple Engineering and Design on all of its ever sleek looking products, and i personally own 2  ipods (ipod nano + ipod shuffle generation 1). That tells you how successful they are, and the colourful ipods has even inspired us in how we design our sohoStore and miniStore e-commerce templates.

Fortune has named Steve Jobs as CEO of the decade (don’t forget his co-founder pal, Steve Wozniak, who we equally admire for his technical genius + funny characters too!).

And we think you really should not miss out the speech by steve jobs below (really, really inspiring), especially to all the small business owners and fellow entrepreneurs out there. Stay focused, stay hungry. We don’t need to be steve jobs, but we can be as successful as steve jobs within our area of influence.

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Now you tell me, how are we going to lift our ranking here !? Dare the local ISP call their service BroadBand? and hello… even our neighbour Thailand is running at 2.0MBps average ? Is our broadband really this bad and hopeless ? (yes, as an user, this is our experience, period). See the Broadband Ranking list at ZdnetAsia.

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Latest Breaking news! Here’s the latest update on PayPal Supporting Malaysian Ringgit (MYR), now, the final piece of the puzzle is finally completed. You can officially link up your PayPal Account (Start selling online now) to a Malaysia Banks (or Overseas banks operating in Malaysia, basically via the MEPS network).

Step 1 – Login to your PayPal Account, Go to Profile > Add / Edit Bank Account

Step 2 – Fill in the account details.  If you are not sure about the Bank Name and the MEPS bank routing code (aka SWIFT code, a special code required when you do Telegraphic Transfer), just click on the details link. Seems like there are 21 banks on the list. (Including Bank of America !? never know BOA have a  Malaysia branch)

Step 3 – Confirm the details and you are done!

Step 4 – You will receive an email notification on PayPal too upon successful update.

Malaysia Bank Routing Code (also known as SWIFT Code)
==========================================
Here are the bank numbers for some of the major banks in Malaysia.
Bank Name – MEPS Bank Routing Code
AFFIN BANK BERHAD – PHBMMYKL
ALLIANCE BANK MALAYSIA BERHAD – MFBBMYKL
AMBANK BERHAD -  ARBKMYKL
BANK ISLAM MALAYSIA BERHAD -  BIMBMYKL
BANK KERJASAMA RAKYAT BERHAD - BKRMMYK1
BANK MUAMALAT BERHAD - BMMBMYKL
BANK OF AMERICA -  BOFAMY2X
BANK SIMPANAN NASIONAL - BSNAMYK1
CIMB BANK BERHAD - CIBBMYKL
CITIBANK BERHAD - CITIMYKL
DEUSTCHE BANK -  DEUTMYKL
EON BANK BERHAD - EOBBMYKL
HONG LEONG BANK BERHAD -  HLBBMYKL
HSBC BANK MALAYSIA BERHAD - HBMBMYKL
MALAYAN BANKING BERHAD - MBBEMYKL
OCBC BANK (M) BERHAD - OCBCMYKL
PUBLIC BANK BERHAD -  PBBEMYKL
RHB BANK BERHAD -  RHBBMYKL
STANDARD CHARTERED BANK MSIA BHD - SCBLMYKX
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND BERHAD (RBS) - ABNAMYKL
UNITED OVERSEAS BANK -  UOVBMYKL

Around the blogosphere

Fund Paypal Kini Boleh Di Keluarkan Ke Bank Tempatan

Trosworld: Withdraw Paypal funds to your Malaysia Bank Account

Keluarkan Duit PayPal anda ke BANK MALAYSIA

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Long awaiting rumor… Now it’s a reality. You hear it first here!

What are the implications for Malaysia Merchants (and the new countries PayPal starts supporting?). We cannot predict the future, but for every new market which PayPal enters, normally the e-commerce activity will spur as it has become really easy for businesses (esp small businesses) to start accepting online payment and thus making e-commerce a very practical and attractive channel for them to expand their businesses.

In the eye of PayPal, Malaysia has been perceived as a favorite cross-border trading (aka export) and our English based speaking crowd is seen as an advantage (when it comes to product content, still, need to sort out on “what to sell”). Will we live up to the expectation? Well, time will tell.

4 Important Key Takeaways:

1. Malaysian Merchants can now accept payments in Ringgit Malaysia on their websites or online stores (on top of 22 other foreign currencies) – haven’t started selling yet? Sign up webShaper stores now, from as low as RM 1 per day.
2. You can keep a MYR (Ringgit Malaysia) balance  in your PayPal account now (Think of it like a multi-currency bank account)
   
3. PayPal can now linked to a Malaysia Bank Account and You can easily transfer your funds over (Yet to be available, but soon since they already have the official rates published)
4. Apart from Malaysian Ringgit, PayPal also adds in Philipino Peso, Taiwanese Dollar, Thai Baht, Argentinean Peso and Brazilian Reais.  Learn more

Cost ($) of Doing Business with PayPal

How much is the transaction fee?

Transaction fees generally divided into Domestic Payment vs Cross-Border Payment

For Domestic Payment

3.4% + RM2 per transaction or below (for transaction volume less than RM12,000) – Learn more

For Cross-Border Payment ( fees for receiving payments from buyers outside Malaysia)

3.9% + RM2 per transaction or below (for transaction volume less than RM12,000) – Learn more

Withdrawal Fees (From PayPal to your bank account)?

If you withdraw more than RM400, it’s FREE! – Learn more

Minimum withdrawal amount?

Malaysian Ringgits (only for Malaysian users) RM40.00 MYR – Learn more

Other questions you might have in mind:

So does it mean PayPal is the only thing i need to start accepting online payment?

As easy and affordable as PayPal, it cannot do-it-all. First, you need to know exactly what market you are targeting. If you are targeting local online customers, it’s good to have a local payment gateway too (if budget allows, we normally recommend sign up both) as Malaysia Payment Gateways like iPay88 or nbePay both support Internet Banking Transfer which is not supported by PayPal (and very unlikely to be supported by PayPal in near future)

So this is governed by what law?

Well, of course it’s by Malaysia Law. Don’t even think about anything fishy apart from running a serious business.  See the details here on PayPal Policy Changes.

“For Malaysian residents who register for the PayPal service with a Malaysian address, this Agreement is governed by and interpreted under the laws of Malaysia as such laws are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within Malaysia.”

Do you know we are the only one in Malaysia which has PayPal Certified Developer?

See our PayPal Certified Developer – Sunzi Lim listed on the PayPal Certified Developer List

Links from around the blogs

MalaysiaCrunch.blogspot.com – Breaking: PayPal in Ringgit Malaysia!

Adesblog.com – PayPal Accepts Ringgit Malaysia now

Matzis.com – PayPal Senaraikan Ringgit Malaysia

AnuarMazuki.com – Polisi Baru PayPal

Sifu-lan.com – Matawang Malaysia kini diterima PayPal? Betul ke?

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Some interesting statistics from Verisign.com (Yes, the company which operates the .com and .net domain!)

746,934,000 – The number of worldwide Internet users, up 10 percent in 2008. And, for the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Internet,  consumer  IP  traffic  surpassed  business IP traffic in 2008, most of it being broadband or faster.

Top 5 Internet Markets

(country)  (Internet users)  (penetration)   (worldwide share)
US  (182,779,000 ) ( 61% ) ( 16% )
China   ( 137,000,000) ( 10% )  ( 12% )
India  ( 72,746,000 ) ( 7% )  ( 6% )
Japan  ( 67,489,000 ) ( 53% ) ( 6% )
United Kingdom  ( 43,752,000 ) ( 72% )  ( 4% )

2 out of 3 - Number  of  Internet  users  who  visit  social networking  sites – a  number  that  has more than doubled in the last three years. (needs less to say, facebook is the king of social networking now)

2 out of 3 - Internet users  in the United States shopped and made a purchase online in 2007.

$146 billion – U.S.  retail e-commerce  sales  in 2008, greater  than  the GDP  of  Switzerland,  Sweden,  South Africa, Portugal, and Denmark combined.

$1243 - Amount the average American will spend shopping online this year.

$68.88 – The average PayPal Transaction

85% - Number of online shopeers who actually buy thing.

Top Internet Retailers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Unique Visitors
eBay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  72,972,000
Amazon Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  57,002,000
Apple Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  45,396,000
Wal-Mart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30,398,000
Target Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . .  27,978,000
Shopzilla.com Sites . . . . . . . . . . . .  21,425,000
Yahoo! Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19,278,000
Moviefone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15,632,000
Best Buy Sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14,585,000
Ticketmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13,487,000

You can download the PDF here.

Last but not least, do you know Verisign also owns Thawte.com and Geotrust.com? It makes them the giant in SSL Security Products!

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Voila everyone, back from holiday yet? Time to rock again! We would like to start with announcing all new online store templates available for sohoStore and bizStore. See more below!

Serendipity

Now even the colourful, young, energetic template is available for sohoStore. This one is perfect for clothing sellers! (Click on template below to see the live demo store, switch the theme in real time!)

Read the rest of this entry »

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We would like to wish all muslim  friends, partners and clients a happy raya new year and may you have a joyful time with friends and family. Our office will be off from 21st to 22nd Sept 2009 and we will resume work in Wednesday.

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