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ndonesia'€™s largest retailer for fashion apparel, beauty and home products, Matahari Department Store (MDS), has raised its indirect ownership in online marketplace mataharimall.com to further broaden its business reach through e-commerce.

MDS said that it had recently acquired 4.4 million shares in PT Global Ecommerce Indonesia (GEI) worth about Rp 53 billion (US$4.2 million) in a transaction that raised its stake in GEI to 5 percent from 1.99 percent.

GEI owns Matahari Mall through its subsidiaries PT Rekata Sinar Bumi and PT Lenteng Lintas Benua, which hold 99 percent and 1 percent, respectively, in PT Solusi Ecommerce Global, the company behind mataharimall.com. With the acquisition, MDS hopes to benefit from wider access to e-commerce.

GEI'€™s other shareholders include PT Investama Digital Ventura with a 81.90 percent stake, PT Dutamas Sinar Mustika with 7.34 percent, PT Duta Wibisana Anjaya with 3.67 percent and PT Matahari Putra Prima, which holds a 1.93 percent stake.

Kiswoyo Adi Joe, a securities analysts at Investa Saran Mandiri, said the acquisition would enable MDS to further expand its online business. '€œIt remains unclear whether e-commerce generates big profits, but its future is quite bright. MDS'€™s action is a long-term investment,'€ he said over the telephone on Wednesday.

Maybank Kim Eng Securities analyst Janni Asman shared the same view, saying that the corporate action aimed at strengthening MDS'€™s exposure to the e-commerce segment.

'€œWe are of the view that e-commerce development will stay robust this year, as its basis is currently still low,'€ she wrote in an email to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Data from the Communications and Information Ministry showed that Indonesia'€™s total e-commerce transactions amounted to $12 billion in 2014 and were expected to grow tenfold to $135 billion by 2020.

The rapid growth of e-commerce transactions over the past few years was triggered by the country'€™s rising internet usage, with user numbers growing by an average 23.6 percent each year to 88.1 million as of 2014, up from 16 million in 2005, the data show.

Before trying to ride the wave of e-commerce, MDS '€” whose parent company Multipolar is part of the Lippo Group conglomerate '€” has been one of the major retailers in Southeast Asia'€™s largest economy benefitting from increased purchasing power in the expanding middle class.

MDS'€™s financial report reveals that it booked gross sales amounting Rp 12.11 trillion as of September last year, up 10.26 percent from the same period in 2014. Its net revenue grew by 12.8 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 6.81 trillion, while its net profit soared by 30.5 percent yoy to Rp 1.38 trillion.

Despite the country'€™s slowing economy last year, MDS added 11 new stores, whose locations include Jakarta, Yogyakarta, West Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara, to its existing 131 outlets nationwide. It expects to open 10 to 12 new stores this year.