Malaysian online sales, now just slightly more than 1 per cent of the total retail market, may quintuple by 2025, says a new government report.

Fashion sales are expected to be a major contributor to the rise in online shopping.

A strategic roadmap for e-commerce has been launched by the Malaysian government, which has also rolled out initiatives in partnership with the private sector.

More than half of online shoppers in Malaysia are younger than 29 years, according to the Malaysia B2C E-commerce Market 2017 report by yStats. Moreover, internet penetration is one of the highest in the region with about a third of users making online purchases, says the report.

Clothing and footwear were the most popular online items last year, while Lazada.com.my and 11street.my were the most-visited e-commerce websites in February, says the report.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak launched a digital free-trade zone along with Alibaba founder/executive chairman Jack Ma in March. The Chinese e-commerce company said it would set up a logistics hub to serve as a regional distribution hub, to be part of the zone, near Kuala Lumpur International Airport.