Indonesia's E-Commerce Industry to Capitalize on 'Harbolnas' Sales
Jakarta. If online shoppers in the United States have its "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" annual shopping sale, and China has "Singles' Day," a group of online retailers in Indonesia are pushing "Hari Belanja Online Nasional" ("National Online Shopping Day") or "Harbolnas" to become Indonesia's single-biggest shopping event of the year.
E-commerce companies, both local and overseas, have long eyed Indonesia's overflowing pool of young and increasingly affluent middle class, especially in anticipation of rising mobile phone and internet penetration rate across the country.
A forecast by information technology market research firm International Data Corporation, for instance, claimed that smartphone shipments into the country is set to grow by 20 percent to nearly 30 million this year. Such growth is expected to spill over to the e-commerce industry where IDC expects the market size to reach $3 billion this year and $5 billion next year from some $2 billion in 2014.
Going on its fourth year, the annual Harbolnas shopping campaign has grown exponentially in participation with 140 companies jumping on board — compared to six companies when it first started in 2012 — with well-known e-commerce firms from the likes of Lippo Group's Matahari Mall to niche marketplaces, such as Kukuruyuk.com.
The campaign, which is set to take place on Dec. 10 to Dec. 12, claims to offer up to 90 percent discounts across its participating online shopping sites, totaling to about Rp 120 billion ($8.5 million) in discounts.
"Indonesia has an amazing potential to become a country with the largest e-commere industry in the Southeast Asian region. This can be seen by the continual increase of e-commerce players in Indonesia," said Indra Yonathan, vice president of strategic marketing partnership at Lazada Indonesia, who orchestrated this year's Harbolnas campaign.
Anthony Fung, chief executive officer at Zalora Indonesia, said that the event already makes up a big chunk of Zalora's annual sales — even bigger than Ramadhan, which has been known to be the country's biggest shopping season of the year.
"December for us is always bigger than Ramadhan," he said. "Harbolnas has been a very, very important event in Indonesia, to give e-commerce momentum. It's not just Zalora taking part, it's an industry-wide event."
The shopping site, which sells mostly fashion and lifestyle items, is aiming to see transactions surge ten times compared to its daily average on the first day of Harbolnas alone, according to Fung. Yet, this is only "the tip of the iceberg," he says.
The industry's potential has also caught the attention of the Indonesian government, who is currently considering whether to open the industry to foreign players. The Trade Ministry and the Ministry of Information and Communication have also been working together to devise the regulatory framework of the industry.
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