Tokopedia Boss Reveals the Biggest Problem Faced by MSMEs when Selling on E-commerce

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the perpetrators UMKM forced to find a way to survive and develop his business.

One of the ways is to enter the digital market and make sales on the platform e-commerce. It’s just that selling on e-commerce is not as easy as it seems, because there are several obstacles to be found.

Tokopedia co-founder & CEO William Tanuwijaya said that one of the biggest problems faced by MSMEs when selling in e-commerce is the low purchasing power of the public which can lead to decreased sales.

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“In fact, there is a lot of demand, but people’s purchasing power in the market is low,” he said during a discussion on the Proud Webinar Made in Indonesia #AllAdaDisini which was broadcast virtually, Monday (26/10/2020).

According to him, the low purchasing power in the market is also caused by several factors, such as the national economy is not optimistic, which makes people more likely to think about saving rather than spending.

For this reason, Tokopedia has made various initiatives or provided stimuli to incentives to encourage online transactions such as providing free shipping, cashback to various promotional programs.

“For online shopping, the price of goods is affordable, but shipping costs are expensive, so we make free shipping. Then we also provide a cashback program every month,” he said.

Also read: E-Commerce Transactions Doubled, but …

William said during this pandemic there were several categories demand tall one. This happened because people were forced to stay at home to minimize the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“During this pandemic, people prefer to stay at home. Even they do sports at home, this is what makes the demand for sports products on Tokopedia increase significantly,” he said.

In fact, he continued, there is one local bicycle brand, namely the Element Bike, which received a MURI Record for the category of selling folding bikes in under 1 minute.

“When they launched a new bicycle design on Tokopedia, 200 units were sold within 40 seconds, so they get a MURI record,” he said.

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