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ooking to take advantage of the country'€™s growing e-commerce market, publicly listed phone distributor and retailer PT Trikomsel has officially launched a US$2 million joint venture with logistics provider Singapore Post (SingPost).

The joint venture, named PT Trio SPecommerce Indonesia (TSI), is 67 percent controlled by Trikomsel and 33 percent owned by SingPost through its wholly owned subsidiary SP eCommerce.

Trikomsel Internet Media CEO Andreas Thamrin said during the launch on Thursday that TSI would have a major impact on the e-commerce service business in the country. '€œWe see a huge untapped potential in this business, where many local companies don'€™t have a presence in the e-commerce market yet,'€ he said.

SP eCommerce'€™s director for e-commerce solutions, Justin Lee, said that TSI would provide a one-stop e-commerce solution for both brands and retailers, with particular interest in strong offline brands willing to build or strengthen their presence in Indonesia'€™s e-commerce market.

Lee declined to discuss any specific target in the joint venture'€™s first-year operation in the country, but said that Indonesia was one of their key markets with a continuously growing e-commerce market.

Indonesia'€™s e-commerce market is projected to be worth Rp 295 trillion ($22.2 billion) next year, a huge increase from Rp 94.5 trillion in 2013, according to the Indonesian E-Commerce Association (idEA).

The growth of e-commerce will be driven by the growing number of smartphone users in the country, predicted to skyrocket to 103.6 million people in 2017 from around 61.2 million last year, according to market research company eMarketer.

TSI will provide one-stop e-commerce services consisting of e-commerce technology, warehousing solutions, delivery & return services, store operations, regional customer care and performance marketing.

The joint venture would help clients in various fields of operations from building e-commerce platforms to marketing products through both online and traditional channels, Lee said.

Andreas said the joint venture was already helping smartphone brands Xiaomi and Huawei with warehousing and delivery solutions in the archipelago.

'€œFor the warehousing, we are partnering with PT Quantium Solutions Logistics Indonesia, which has provided us with 2,200 square-meters of warehouse located in Cililitan [East Jakarta],'€ he said.

Andreas suggested there might be a need to add more warehouses in the future, but that it would very much depend on client demand.

For the initial operations, most of TIS'€™ clients are likely to be foreign brands wishing to set up a presence in the country. Currently, SP eCommerce already has dozens of big-brand clients in fashion, sports, lifestyle and electronics.

Sportswear company Adidas, Japanese retailer JRunway and electronics giant Toshiba are among the clients of SP eCommerce, according to information published on its website.