JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - As many as 65% or 390 modern retailers which are members of the Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo) are expanding into electronic commerce (e-commerce) this year as a move to boost growth. Currently, about 50-60 modern retailers from a total of 600 members of Aprindo already entered the e-commerce business.
“Modern retailers realize that developing business by opening a physical store is slow, therefore they find alternative strategy through expanding online to maintain momentum of business growth,” said Chairman of Aprindo Roy Mandey at the PwC 2017 Total Retail Report in Jakarta, Wednesday (5/4).
He noted that retailers which have entered the e-commerce, among others, are Sun, Indomaret, Alfamart, MAP Partners, and others. “Those who have entered into e-commerce also continues to educate the public in order to take advantage of online sales service,” he added.
Roy said, these retailers use e-commerce as a new distribution channel to offset lack of offline stores. Currently, 600 members of Aprindo had 35 thousand store offline from Aceh to Jayapura.
“Our target is about 65% Aprindo members, especially the retail network, is already going online this year. There are already started, and there are currently preparing the process,” he said.
Roy admitted to the development of e-commerce will be quite difficult for modern retail areas. The reason is that they already have enough with offline stores that are already operating. “The contribution of online trading is relatively small, about 5 percent of the total sales of modern retailers,” he said.
Online marketing, according to him, is not only limited to delivery of the products and ordering over the phone, but also use the telephone and internet transactions. “Marketing via offline is currently sluggish. Therefore, this is a good momentum to use online strategies as a vehicle to penetrate new markets,” he said.
Aprindo predicts that modern retail sales in the first quarter 2017 decreased by approximately 8 percent to Rp 30 trillion, compared to the same period last year. Weak consumer purchasing power due to stagnant economic growth has dragged down modern retail sales in the first three months of this year. (HS)