Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia is expanding its one-day delivery guarantee to nearly all of its products in a move to keep rivals at bay. While the 100% Indonesia focused company already offers same-day or one-day delivery for approximately 65% of its products, it is now expanding the service to nearly its entire catalogue.
This is enabled through alliances with 11 logistics firms that will cover nearly 17,000 islands. The firm, which is backed by Alibaba and SoftBank Group, will begin purchasing minority stakes (up to 30%) in local companies to expand existing services and establish partnerships.
Online shopping in the country anticipated to grow to USD 53 billion within the next 5 years or so, constituting an increase of 400%. Tokopedia, which raised USD 1.1 billion in a Series G round led by Softbank and Alibaba in December 2018, is the current market leader with an estimated monthly traffic of 148.5 million. It is followed by Shopee, Bukalapak and Alibaba-owned Lazada.
In another move, the company has launched “TokoCabang”, its own order fulfillment service to help merchants expand their client base. For a monthly subscription of 3,000 rupiah (USD 0.21) per item for products to be stored for above 60 days in Tokopedia’s warehouses, Tokopedia will take care of storage, order receipts, buyer support, packaging and delivery to logistics agents. The application will only be available for stores with solid reputations and cannot be used for banned products such as fresh food, aerosols or products with dimensions exceeding 40cm x 28 cm x 28 cm. Some sellers that have already joined the platform are EMPO, Pioneer, Jabra and Ria Miranda.
(Source: Inside Retail Asia; Nikkei Asian Review; Techinasia.com; e27.co)
