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Jakarta Post

Jakarta Great Sale yet to attract shoppers

Everything must go: Consumers buy clothes at a discounted rate of 70 percent at one of the shops in Pasar Baru market in Jakarta on Thursday

Indah Setiawati (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, June 7, 2013

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Jakarta Great Sale yet to attract shoppers Everything must go: Consumers buy clothes at a discounted rate of 70 percent at one of the shops in Pasar Baru market in Jakarta on Thursday. The huge discount offer was a part of Jakarta Great Sale program, welcoming Jakarta’s 486th anniversary. This year’s sales target was raised to Rp 11.8 trillion (US$1.2 billion) from last year’s Rp 10 trillion. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira) (US$1.2 billion) from last year’s Rp 10 trillion. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

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span class="inline inline-none">Everything must go: Consumers buy clothes at a discounted rate of 70 percent at one of the shops in Pasar Baru market in Jakarta on Thursday. The huge discount offer was a part of Jakarta Great Sale program, welcoming Jakarta'€™s 486th anniversary. This year'€™s sales target was raised to Rp 11.8 trillion (US$1.2 billion) from last year'€™s Rp 10 trillion. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

Pretty Kaur, a businesswoman from Brunei Darussalam, knew nothing about the Jakarta Great Sale until she visited two shopping malls on the fourth day of her vacation in the capital city.

Her eyes opened wider when she found out the malls she had visited were among 74 shopping centers that would spoil shoppers with huge discounts. '€œIn another department store we saw Gucci handbags discounted at 70 percent, but we didn'€™t know that the sales would be going on for an entire month,'€ she told The Jakarta Post recently.

She could not hide her excitement when shouting to her friends, '€œLet'€™s shop till we drop!'€

Pretty was among a group of nine women consisting of business women, members of international women'€™s organizations and wives of some ambassadors who flew from Brunei to shop and visit historical sites in Jakarta and Yogyakarta.

None of them knew they were in the middle of the Jakarta Great Sale, which is being held from June 1
until July 14. The annual festival that has been held for the last six years is among dozens of events held to commemorate the city'€™s 486th anniversary, which falls on June 22.

The Indonesian Shopping Center Association (APPBI) this year is targeting a 10-15 percent increase in the value of transactions, which reached Rp 10 trillion (US$1 billion) last year.

Writer and shopping consultant Amelia Yugia Masniari, who is famously called '€œMiss Jinjing'€ (Miss Shopping), said the festival needed to cooperate with various service businesses to compete with similar festivals held in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.

She said the integration would help differentiate the festival from other regular sales events and would help lure shoppers. Brochures and advertisements were no longer enough to boost people'€™s shopping moods, she said.

'€œThis festival needs sweeteners. For example, it would be nice if shoppers were offered discounts from certain retailers by showing their boarding pass or get a free taxi voucher after spending a certain amount of money,'€ she told the Post.

A former personal shopper and consultant for a number of overseas tourism boards, Amelia said Jakarta should be more aggressive in targeting the emerging middle class.

Meanwhile, chairman of APPBI and festival chairman, Handaka Santosa, said his committee had made efforts to promote the event by involving more retailers, advertising in Garuda in-flight magazine, giving out spa vouchers, putting up billboards in provincial capital cities, holding lucky draws and a midnight sale event in 14 shopping malls on June 21.

To attract shoppers from the Middle East, the association cooperated with the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agents (ASITA) to distribute Arabic language brochures in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait city.

'€œWe are working in stages to attract more visitors and we plan to work harder next year. We are also looking forward to marrying flights with retailers,'€ he told the Post.

Handaka said that during the past two years, most customers were happy with the competitiveness of prices, which according to him, saved them from making trips Singapore.

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