T

he world’s largest online market, eBay, has agreed to team up with a local shopping portal Plasa.com to help Indonesian retailers get easier access to global buyers.

Plasa.com chief innovation officer Andi S. Boediman said in Jakarta on Thursday that under the cooperation, both parties would agree to promote e-commerce in Indonesia by helping local retailers sell their products globally through eBay.

Before local retailers can display their products on eBay’s website, they have to meet a number of requirements including submitting their profiles and product summaries, Andi said.

“We will see whether the registered retailers meet the requirements to be listed on eBay,” he added. “If they don’t, they will be listed on Plasa.com.”

He said that before retailers had their track record profiled and were directed to the market they fitted into, the should register at www.plasa.com/ebay or sea.ebay.com/plasa.

There, potential sellers are required to fill in their real names and addresses to establishing more technical requirements, such as creating PayPal accounts, doing market research, making sure the items are originals and being able to use appropriate delivery services.

Under the cooperation, eBay, through Plasa.com, would provide consultation services to selected companies on marketing strategy, market survey and after-sales services.

“We will invite local sellers who have registered but are not ready for international trading to a
development training,” Andi said, adding that his company would closely monitor sellers before
they were exposed to the international market.

Andi said the collaboration was expected to increase the number of Plasa.com online sellers to 10,000 next year from the current 1,500 at the moment.

Plasa.com CEO Shinta W. Dhanuwardoyo said she hoped the cooperation would open more opportunities to sell local products domestically and globally, adding that the cooperation would also encourage the growth of e-commerce in Indonesia.

eBay chief operating officer for Greater China, Southeast Asia and Japan Oliver Hua said e-commerce had tremendous potential in Indonesia alongside the accelerating growth in Internet users.

The Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers claims Indonesia’s Internet penetration reached 45 million by 2010, compared to only one million in 1999.

Hua said that with 45 million Internet users in Indonesia, e-commerce transactions reached a total of US$3.4 billion in 2009.

“Indonesia has tremendous potential with e-commerce,” he said, adding that the numbers of items sold on eBay by merchants from Indonesia to overseas buyers grew 200 percent a year.

Head of eBay for Southeast Asia and Middle East marketplaces Jason Lee said that currently four-fifths of residents in Indonesia planned to make an online purchase in the near future.

He said Indonesia would become one of the big markets for e-commerce, with 120 million more Indonesians expected to go online by 2015.

In a press statement, eBay claimed to be present in 39 global markets with buyers from 200 countries. The online market also recorded net profits of US$8.7 billion in 2009. (map)