KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 11): Malaysian merchants are increasingly attracting more global buyers as they trade on Alibaba.com's trading platform, the group said.

These merchants experienced a double-digit increase in inquiries from global buyers during a recent Super September online expo, said Alibaba.com general manager Yu Yong.

"Local Malaysian merchants received increased inquiries by 21% and their ability to convert visitors to active buyers increased by 15% during the event," Yu said at the group's Global Trading Conference 2018 here.

Super September Online Expo is an annual sales event held by Alibaba.com which facilitates cross-border trade between merchants and suppliers.

Yu said the annual online expo aims to lower trade barriers for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia while helping them generate more business opportunities and enabling them to expand their business in a safe and cost effective environment.

"Merchants can benefit from a saving of about 1-2% in foreign exchange rates, as well as a 30% reduction in logistic costs," he said.

He said Malaysian industries have shown the biggest growth potential in areas of cross-border trade such as in food and beverage, beauty and personal care, furniture, home and garden as well as rubber and plastic products.

"Alibaba.com has made great progress in Malaysia this year. Through process optimisation of its one-stop trading services, local merchants were able to reduce a significant amount of time on its export customs declaration from seven days to just one working day," he added.

Yu said moving forward, Alibaba.com aims to make international trade more simple by lowering the cost of purchase for SMEs and further simplifying the process from product search through transaction.

He said Alibaba.com is aiming to have more than 2,000 suppliers from Malaysia by year end from around 1,500 currently.