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ore and more Indonesians are finding Internet-based stores to be a boon in their increasingly busy lives.

Indonesian consumers are slowly moving away from traditional methods of shopping. While the age-old system of a buyer meeting a seller face-to-face in the marketplace is still the dominant practice in society, more and more Indonesians are seeing cyberspace as a great alternative means of shopping.

The Jakarta Post, for example, reported earlier this year that Indonesia'€™s Internet users enjoyed the highest level of satisfaction in online shopping out of 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region in 2013. The survey, conducted by MasterCard, showed that 96 percent of almost 1,000 respondents across the country were satisfied with the new method of shopping.

A similar survey by Visa Worldwide Indonesia undertaken in April of this year indicated that online shoppers spent an average of US$500 annually on airline tickets and accommodation and about $194 per year on fashion products and cosmetics.

 Higher convenience and a wider range of choices are the main reasons that Indonesian consumers are making their way to the Internet as their main marketplace. Window-shopping on the Internet also makes for a more private and pressure-free shopping experience.

One student told the Post that she enjoyed being able to browse a wide range of clothes online without worrying about judgmental looks from store owners or other customers.

Take Nadia Sarasati, 25, a Gadjah Mada University graduate. She frequents online sites like Iwearup.com and Bloopendorse.com. It is on sites like these that she buys clothes, shoes, cakes and confectionary. These virtual stores offer products that are not available elsewhere.

'€œA lot of the shoes and clothes online are more unique than the ones in malls, like batik shoes, which are difficult to find offline. Even if you can find them, they'€™re usually very expensive due to the way in which they are sold in stores targeting foreign tourists,'€ Nadia said. '€œThe clothes you find in malls are also bland, or mainstream, if I may say. Online is where you can find plenty of styles.'€

Similarly, Restikaputri '€œTika'€ Nayundari, 25, who works in the field of property management, often gets her shopping fix on sites such as Lazada.co.id, Tokopedia.com and Luxola.com. The websites list her favorite products in categories, from electronics to make-up.

'€œIt'€™s less time consuming to shop at these stores. It'€™s not complicated, either. All I have to do is '€˜click, click, click'€™ and I'€™m done,'€ Tika said. '€œI especially like Luxola because I can find discounts of up to 37 percent there.'€

Online stores also aim to provide more comprehensive information about products and services than their offline counterparts. On Telunjuk.com, for instance, buyers can use the site'€™s search engine and product-comparison features to find and compare prices between products based on brand, specifications and price range. They are then directed to stores that sell the items they want.

Some of the businesses that are meeting Indonesia'€™s increasing demand for online-based shopping understand these needs and have based their operations around them.

Makanluar.com'€™s co-founder, Kunal Narang, for example, designed his restaurant reservation website specifically to provide maximum convenience for Indonesians looking for reputable places to eat. The eateries listed on the site can be filtered by cuisine, price, location and what specifically the establishments are suitable for '€” whether a family friendly get-together or a romantic dinner. All the information on the site is up-to-date. Narang said that his website was a solution to a problem '€œborn out of personal frustration'€.

'€œIf we were looking for a restaurant with a private room that had Japanese cuisine, it would be impossible to find it on a central source,'€ Narang said. '€œThe same thing goes for if we were looking for a more casual place for drinks with our out-of-town colleagues who were looking to us for guidance. So we wanted to be that friend, except online, who you call on to ask for recommendations about where to go in the city so you don'€™t waste your time, especially if it takes you a lot of time in traffic to make your way there.'€

Carmudi.co.id, a burgeoning classified car advertisements site, takes a similar approach in providing comprehensive information and convenient solutions for its customers. The site allows users to buy or sell used cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles online.

Just like Makanluar, Carmudi allows visitors to compare a wealth of information on the products they are looking for. Prospective buyers can get details on important purchasing factors like the make, model, mileage and year of vehicles.

Each listed vehicle has professional photographs and up-to-date information that includes detailed product descriptions, reports and rankings to ensure absolute credibility. It has gone even further than most sites in the convenience department with a recently launched mobile application that allows users to access all of the information from the palm of their hand.

'€œYou know what the traffic is like in Jakarta. They don'€™t have to drive somewhere just to see if the car is still available or not, or if that particular car is too expensive,'€ said Stefan Haubold, Carmudi'€™s co-founder and global managing director. '€œIt'€™s convenient.'€

The success of these online marketplaces '€” Carmudi alone has grown from only 3,000 listings at the start of 2014 to now seeing about 4,000 new listings weekly '€” has caught the attention of more and more Indonesians who are also interested in getting into e-commerce.

More Indonesians are taking advantage of platforms such as Shopify.co.id, Bostoko.com, Jualan.com, Kaskus.co.id and Berniaga.com to set up their own boutiques and stores.