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arrefour Indonesia, the local unit of the French retailer, is going from bricks and mortar to pixels and bytes through the launch of their online shopping website, which will offer more than 5,000 dry products, and thus, make them the first big Indonesian retailer to test the digital waters.

Satria Hamid Ahmadi, Carrefour Indonesia spokesman, said that the retailer decided to create the online shop shop.carrefour.co.id after conducting market surveys, which found that the majority of their shoppers had less time for grocery shopping.

“Our consumers, who we found to be mostly working women, have limited time to hit the stores. These are the consumers who we are targeting through the development of our online store,” he said.

Adrien Barthel, the online marketing and e-commerce manager at Carrefour Indonesia, added that the online store targeted women in the A and B+ market segment; individuals which belong within the upper middle social bracket.

According to him, although Carrefour has introduced their online shopping system in Europe, Indonesia was the first country in the region where they test this concept, called “Click and Drive”.

“Indonesia is really unique in terms of its e-commerce and its rising Internet industry. That is why Indonesia is a laboratory for new mechanisms,” he said.

He added the under the “Click and Drive” concept, customers could log into the website and place the items they desire to purchase in a digital shopping cart.

However, Carrefour could not send the grocery to the shoppers’ door due to “infrastructure issues,” so shoppers have to pick up their packed groceries at a designated section at the Lebak Bulus Carrefour branch.

The availability of a solid expedition infrastructure, including the availability of round the clock couriers, is still one of the greatest issues, besides payment mechanisms, that e-commerce businesses face in Indonesia.

“If you place your order before noon, you can pick up the goods before 4 p.m.,” he said, adding that shoppers who place orders later in the day can only pick up the goods the next day because the retailer requires four hours to prepare the ordered goods.

Adrien added that, given that the retailer was still testing the waters, their branch in Lebak Bulus was currently the only store which caters to online customers and that shoppers must pay for their groceries with credit cards on collection.

The minimum payment for this new service is Rp 50,000 (US$5.21) and the retailer does not charge an extra fee for the service. Carrefour plans to further “enlarge the scope of payment method” as well as add more locations in the future.

Adrien said that since the concept was still new in the Indonesian online retail world, the retailer was still in the midst of building a community of online shoppers.

“The number of transactions depends between the beginning and end of the month. The lowest number of transaction in a day was two, while the highest was 10,” he said.

Albeit it has shortcomings, the online store might have a fighting chance.

Andy Zain, an observer of the e-commerce realm, said that the initiative of Carrefour was a “good idea to bridge the online and offline world”.

“Indonesian consumers are not yet accustomed to online transactions because they fear fraud,” he said.

E-commerce players previously pointed out that the fear of fraudulent transactions was another factor stopping consumers from shopping online.

“The facility offered by Carrefour gives the public a chance to test the ease of shopping online, but with delivery and payment still conducted through more conventional and trusted means,” he told The Jakarta Post.