Malaysia

Tourism Malaysia is looking for new ways to expand its reach and entice more travellers to book a holiday in the country. For example, Tourism Malaysia collaborated with Indonesian travel platform Traveloka on a smart partnership campaign to promote…

The ongoing inflation in Malaysia is set to continue exerting an upward pressure on unit prices in 2023, albeit at a slightly slower pace than in 2022. This rising trend, notably within the confectionery sector, is impacting consumer behaviour.…

As volume sales continue to decline dramatically across both chewing gum and bubble gum, the growth of chewing gum in Malaysia has slowed down slightly in current value terms in 2023 when compared to the previous year. A key contributing factor to…

Overall, economy and premium cigarettes gained retail volume share at the expense of mid-priced brands in 2022. The main reason for this trend was derived from high inflation, which drove high living costs and informed expenditure on cigarettes. Many…

After another difficult year in 2021 when retail was hit by further lockdowns and restrictions, the picture was much brighter in 2022 as the country entered a period of normalisation. The lifting of Malaysia’s international border restrictions in…

In contrast to most other home care categories, demand for home insecticides was not significantly affected by the pandemic. Home insecticides are regarded as essential by most local consumers, as the mosquito-borne disease, dengue fever, is endemic…

As with the other travel categories, lodging’s recovery has also been boosted by the re-opening of international borders and a significant increase in tourism flows in 2023. Before this, lodging was mainly relying on domestic travellers which led to…

Portable players is dominated by wireless speakers, with portable multimedia players accounting for most of the remainder. Compact, portable and affordable, as well as being compatible with “on-the-go” lifestyles, wireless speakers are rapidly…

Mobile phones continued to account for the highest proportion of retail value sales of consumer electronics in 2023. Smartphones are playing an increasingly important role in the daily lives of local consumers, thanks to the shift towards a cashless…

Retail sales of imaging devices continued their to fall in constant value terms during 2023. Such products are being cannibalised by smartphones, which are increasingly ubiquitous in Malaysia. While the quality of a smartphone camera is typically…

Headphones saw positive growth in constant value terms in 2023, despite consumer concerns about the cost of living. Increased smartphone use for streaming audio and video content was a key driver of this trend, in addition to the ongoing prevalence…

Wine-based RTDs was the most dynamic category in total volume terms in 2022. This was a turnaround in fortunes for a category which was in decline even before the pandemic. The category benefited from the lifting of restrictions on bars/pubs and…

Dog food saw a lower rate of retail volume growth in 2022-23 due to a decline in dog adoptions as local consumers returned to pre-pandemic levels of activity outside of the home. In addition, the fragile economic climate means fewer consumers can…

Social distancing measures remain in effect in Malaysia in 2021, with consumers forced to avoid spending time outside of the home wherever possible and huge numbers of white-collar professionals, office workers and service industry personnel working…

The development of the retail tissue category was affected by inflationary pressure in 2022. Following the global imposition of lockdowns during the COVID-19 crisis, the category faced the inflated costs of raw materials, supply issues and the…

Since local consumers spent more time at home during the COVID-19 crisis due to lockdown restrictions and home working, they needed to clean their toilets more frequently, supporting rising demand for toilet care products. COVID-19 also supported…

Home care disinfectants saw retail volume sales decline in 2022 following the peak hit at the height of the COVID-19 crisis when concerns about exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus encouraged consumers to pay considerable attention to sanitising…

The home care market in Malaysia saw marked price rises in 2022 as a result of global increases in the costs of raw materials, energy and transportation, as well as the weakness of the local currency. Home care products saw prices increase by more…

Ice cream volume sales in foodservice are outpacing those within retail in Malaysia in 2023, with the latter in decline, indicating a significant change in consumer behaviour. With the pandemic lockdown lifted in 2022, consumers resumed dining out in…

Malaysia’s international borders were finally fully reopened to foreign tourists in April 2022. This provided a huge boost to local on-trade operators and in turn helped to stimulate sales of still light grape wine. Imported wine from Australia…