Earlier on March 18th, Malaysia went on the Movement Control Order. As of today, we are on the 5th phase of MCO/ CMCO in other words Condition MCO; where we are allowed to resume businesses. Although most of the businesses are trying to go back to normal, local SME motorcycle dealers are having one of the hardest-hits. Upon contacting a few motorcycles dealers we got some insights on the current situation.
The Malaysian motorcycle market is ranked 14th worldwide and 5th in the ASEAN region. In 2019 Yamaha sold a record of 209.403 units with 36% of market share. While in second place, Honda sold 187.000 two-wheelers (+33%). Moving on, the fast-growing Kawasaki with 52.000 sales in third place followed by local Demak, Suzuki and Bajaj Auto. Aside from this, almost all premium brands play a big part in the country; with KTM leading in this segment, followed by BMW, Harley Davidson and Triumph.
Source: Motorcycle Data
However, with all the motorcycle stores shutting down because of the MCO from March 18th, we assume the overall sales for the first quarter of this year to be very low.
Most of the dealers mentioned that COVID-19 has affected motorcycle sales with most of them having little or no sales. This is mainly because people don’t have the leisure time or the need to shop because of their financial situation. On top of this, limitation on interstate travel and buyers reluctant to go out because of the risk make sales plunge even more.
When we asked about their action plan to overcome the hurdles, one of our active dealers, who would like to go by the name, Mr.K stated: ” It is too soon to predict the upcoming hurdles, currently just focusing on posting online.” Whereas some mentioned that they are on the process of planning and slowly getting back on their feet as walk-ins are almost non-existent for now.
Earlier in April in response to the restricted movement order by our Government, iMotorbike.my was providing:
To further ease the impact on our customer’s sales, we would like to extend the earlier announced credit campaign. The redemption period now extends to 31st May 2020! By now you should have the credits in your account and you will be able to use them until 31 May 2020. All new account users will also share the same benefit too!
On top of this, iMotorbike’s newly announced RM188 promo deal (was RM1188) for business pro plan solely aims to boost sales. With this plan, dealers can post their ads on the site for a year and expect leads and enquiries – whereby dealers can meet the buyers on an appointment basis. Interested? Contact us now!