03/02/2026

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TUESDAY | FEB 3, 2026

Ninja Van Malaysia scales up cold chain logistics operations

Ű BY JOHN GILBERT sunbiz@thesundaily.com

PETALING JAYA: TikTok Shop is rapidly reshaping Malaysia’s e commerce landscape, emerging as a key growth engine for SMEs and local brands by collapsing the journey from content discovery to purchase into a single, frictionless experience. According to Abby Ling ( pic ), managing director for Southeast Asia at mobile advertising platform company Nativex, TikTok Shop has significantly lowered the barriers to entry for Malaysian sellers by allowing brands to turn storytelling into instant transactions. Instead of relying on traffic redirection or heavy market place competition, sellers can now build demand and convert within the same environment through short-form videos and live streams. “For local brands, the ability to move directly from creator-led content to purchase has been a game changer,” Ling said. “It allows smaller teams to compete through sharper execution rather than scale alone.” Beyond visibility, she noted that practical enablement has become increasingly important. This includes KUALA LUMPUR: Ninja Van Malaysia is scaling up its Ninja Cold temperature-controlled logistics net work in 2026 to support the rapid growth of online fresh food plat forms, particularly for high-value perishables such as durian, ready-to eat meals and fresh produce. Following the launch of Ninja Cold in 2025, the company is seeing demand for fresh delivery rise quickly, but many sellers lack the infrastructure to handle the com plexity of the cold chain at scale. “We address this by integrating cold chain technology into our existing e commerce network, allowing us to take advantage of our wide reach across Peninsular Malaysia while enjoying the scale to keep delivery fees affordable. “With growing expectations in the express logistics industry, we make full use of our decade of knowledge to maintain an unbroken cold chain with high service levels. “This positions Ninja Van as a key enabler of Malaysia’s growing fresh e commerce ecosystem, ensuring pro ducts reach consumers on time,” Ninja Van Malaysia CEO Lin Zheng ( pic ) told SunBiz . Elaborating on partnerships with local farmers and eco-friendly cooling technology to address spoilage chal lenges in farm-to-kitchen logistics, he said, that by working with local farmers, Ninja Van Malaysia can move fresh goods quickly from harvest to refrigerated storage and transport, reducing time-to-cold chain and minimising spoilage. Lin said these partnerships are supported by real-time tracking and precise temperature control across the delivery journey, ensuring fruits, vegetables, dairy and chilled foods remain within required conditions

“These challenges can be ad dressed through clearer product posi tioning, consistent content testing and a stronger focus on quality and differentiation rather than dis counting alone,” she said. TikTok Shop’s growth is also influencing Malaysia’s broader creator economy and employment land scape. Ling noted rising demand for commerce-driven creators, live hosts, editors and performance marketers, while micro-creators are finding new income streams through product sales rather than relying solely on sponsorships. Looking ahead, Ling expects social commerce to outpace overall e commerce growth in Malaysia over the next 12 to 24 months, driven largely by Millennials and Gen Z. Short video and live streaming are set to remain core conversion engines, while influencer-led commerce is expected to expand further from celebrity endorsements to micro creator ecosystems. As competition intensifies, she added, sellers will increasingly need to focus on stronger product value propositions to sustain growth in Malaysia’s fast evolving digital retail landscape. bills, customs documentation and real-time tracking to reduce com plexity, errors and operational friction. “The launch of 43 new lanes into high-potential markets such as the US, the EU and Middle East further enables SMEs to scale internationally with greater visibility, reliability, and customer trust,” Lin said. Regarding the current 5G-enabled real-time tracking, Lin said the operation is not expected to have a significant impact on meeting rising same-day delivery demands in high density such as the Klang Valley. “Our existing infrastructure al ready supports real-time tracking, route optimisation and delivery visibility through established mo bile networks and system inte grations. “These technologies are sufficient to manage high parcel volumes efficiently without requiring 5G capabilities. At this stage, there is no specific operational use case within our service model that necessitates the higher bandwidth or ultra-low latency that 5G offers. “Instead, our focus remains on strengthening automation, data driven route planning and mid-mile optimisation to improve speed, re liability, and scalability. These areas deliver more immediate and measu rable impact on same-day delivery performance than up-grading net work connectivity alone,” Lin said.

visibility, fewer delivery failures and more reliable replenishment of inventory “Built on our B2C logistics backbone, it scales efficiently during peak periods with flexible transport, co-loading and nationwide LTL and FTL capabilities,” Lin said. He noted that with the launch of 43 new

o Company integrates technology into its e-commerce network to move fresh produce and perishables quickly from harvest to refrigerated storage, transport and delivery

international delivery lanes in 2025, Ninja Van Malaysia is streng thening its role as a strategic logistics partner for SMEs aiming to enter and scale in global B2B markets. The expanded network forms the backbone of this strategy by lower ing cost and com plexity barriers that have traditionally held back smaller exporters, he said. “Our services

plexity or cost.

throughout transit. “Our energy-efficient cold chain operations and close farmer partnerships help shorten supply chains, reduce waste, and deliver fresher, safer products with a lower environmental footprint.” Ninja Van Malaysia is also expanding its mid-sized freight services to support e-commerce re shoring and just-in-time (JIT) ware housing demands in 2026. “To meet the evolving needs of e commerce and JIT warehousing, we are expanding our mid-sized freight services to provide greater reliability, flexibility and end-to-end integration for growing businesses. In 2026, this includes introducing new direct intercity less-than-truckload (LTL) routes and full truckload (FTL) services tailored specifically for mid sized shippers,” Lin said. He added that these services support businesses that have out grown parcel shipping but are not yet operating at full enterprise scale, allowing them to move inventory efficiently without unnecessary com

“We are deepen ing our B2B restock capabilities, enabling faster and more pre dictable replenish ment for retailers and manufacturers that rely on tight inventory cycles. “By combining

transport, warehou sing, and last-mile fulfilment under one logistics ecosystem, we help mid-sized businesses maintain agility, minimise dis ruptions and operate more confidently in a just-in-time environment,” Lin said. Through Ninja B2B Restock, Ninja Van Malaysia is digitising and automating restocking with a paper less, data-driven logistics workflow, including automated billing and elec-tronic proof of delivery. The platform gives retailers real-time

help Malaysian SMEs overcome high cross-border costs with rates up to 50% cheaper than traditional couriers and delivery within seven to 12 working days, enabling more competitive global pricing. “A single dashboard manages both domestic and international shipments, with automated airway

Ű BY DEEPALAKSHMI MANICKAM sunbiz@thesundaily.com TikTok Shop drives new growth wave for Malaysian SMEs

“TikTok Shop can act as a testing ground before sellers scale regionally,” she said, pointing to examples of multi-country growth achieved through optimised campaigns that began with local traction. Data, artificial intelligence (AI) and performance marketing have become critical in helping sellers scale sustainably. Ling said performance led approaches enable SMEs to move beyond vanity metrics by linking creative output and advertising spend directly to conversion out comes. AI and automation then support growth at scale through faster iteration, smarter optimisation and more efficient creative production. Together, these tools allow sellers to gain clearer control over return on spend and work towards more predictable unit economics. However, challenges remain. Ling said capability gaps are still a key issue for many Malaysian SMEs, particularly in areas such as shop operations, content cadence, product selection and measurement. Differentiation is another major hurdle, as competing on price alone is increasingly fragile in a crowded market.

of conversion has been the rise of live commerce. Ling said live streaming continues to play a central role in sales per formance by combining real-time product de monstrations, social proof and urgency. “Live commerce im proves conversion while also generating a stream of re-usable content,” she said, adding that it is particularly effective for

guidance on shop setup, product selection and per formance optimisation, areas that are often re source-intensive for SMEs. As a result, TikTok Shop is not just acting as a sales channel, but as an opera tional learning platform for smaller businesses. Malaysia’s rapid growth on TikTok Shop, compared with other Southeast Asian markets, is largely driven by how

customer acquisition when paired with influencer participation and live streamed events. Influencer-led live sessions, she explained, help blend entertainment with purchase intent, making them especially effective in attracting first time buyers and building trust with new audiences. Increasingly, Malaysian SMEs are also using TikTok Shop as a launchpad for regional and cross-border ex pansion. Ling said the platform allows sellers to test what content, pricing strategies and product bundles resonate locally before replicating successful models in new markets.

quickly sellers can translate aware ness into sales. Ling pointed to the tight integration between short video content and shopfronts, which allows brands to test, optimise and scale campaigns at speed. Growth has also been accelerated by the adoption of repeatable play books that blend targeted content, promotional moments and fast optimisation using performance sig nals. This approach, she said, has been supported by a strong emphasis on practical training and easy-to-apply advertising techniques tailored to Malaysian sellers. One of the most powerful drivers