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New app helps do business at fingertips
For entrepreneurs, messaging applications are not merely used to communicate with family and friends, but also to enhance business
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or entrepreneurs, messaging applications are not merely used to communicate with family and friends, but also to enhance business.
Model and actress Alice Sofie Almendingen, popularly known as Alice Norin, has used mobile-messaging service LINE to support sales activities for her online fashion shop 8WOOD.
'Buyers usually check our official Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts to check updates of our latest products. However, when it comes to purchasing, they usually contact us by LINE,' she said, adding that she previously also used BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).
LINE's latest application, LINE@, enables sellers to promote their business as well as communicate with clients and customers, like most people do when chatting with their family and friends. This has helped minimize costs for businesses and ease customers' buying experience.
About a quarter of Indonesia's estimated 250 million population owns a smartphone and with its emerging middle class that number is expected to continue to grow. Hence, mobile-messaging applications will likely become the favorite tools to communicate or do business.
The number of mobile-messaging application users in Indonesia has been growing rapidly, with growth last year alone standing at 45 percent, according to research firm GlobalWebIndex. The firm has estimated that the country will see between 60 and 70 percent growth in the number of mobile-messaging applications in a year.
LINE@, launched in February, targets mainly online shops, restaurants and communities in Indonesia. 'The number of LINE@ users in Indonesia is beyond our expectations. There has been a big volume of downloads, even before it was officially launched in the country,' LINE Indonesia e-commerce manager Fanny Verona said.
Fanny said that from the total number of LINE@ users in the country, 40 percent were online shops, 30 percent were restaurants and the remaining 30 percent were communities including bloggers and Internet celebrities.
LINE@ enables its users to broadcast messages that can contain not only texts, but also pictures and stickers. The application also makes it possible for users to put product catalogues on their profile information and make customized welcome messages for consumers.
Alice said she saw 8WOOD's total sales increase by 20 percent in less than a week after she used LINE@.
Another online retailer, Paroparoshop, which sells gadget accessories, also uses messaging applications, including LINE@, WhatsApp and BBM. 'Mobile messaging helps us boost the number of followers in a relatively short time,' said Paroparoshop representative Novita Permatasari.
Voicing a similar view, Gracia Anastasia, the owner of online clothing line Macadamia House, said that mobile messaging applications such as LINE@ had made her business more efficient.
'We have seen that around 70 percent of incoming orders placed in an order format as informed in our mobile messages,' she said, adding that it helped her to process orders faster.
GlobalWebIndex reported that excluding BBM, WhatsApp had become Indonesia's favorite mobile application, with 34 percent of the country's Internet subscribers using the application last year.
Facebook Messenger, WeChat and Skype secured shares of 28 percent, 18 percent and 18 percent, respectively. LINE and KakaoTalk, meanwhile, trailed with 16 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
