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Jakarta Post

Discount frenzy to boost web shopping

Save the date

Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, May 28, 2016

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Discount frenzy to boost web shopping

S

ave the date. On June 24, an online shopping discounts across 30 e-commerce platforms will be available for Indonesians as they indulge in Ramadhan festivities.

The event, called Harboldan — an abbreviation of Hari Belanja Online Ramadhan (Ramadhan Online Shopping Day) — will involve e-commerce giants the likes of MatahariMall, BliBli.com, Hijabenka, BrandOutlet, Livaza and PegiPegi.

The e-commerce marketplaces are going to slash some of their prices by a staggering 90 percent, after seeing a spike in sales during a similar event on Thursday.

Harboldan’s participating vendors say that the two dates are strategic as they are timed perfectly for after people receive their monthly salaries, along with the usual added spending of the upcoming Ramadhan.

“This event takes advantage of the upcoming Ramadhan holiday season, which is one of the largest spending months in Indonesia,” said Rafi Gamal, the Harboldan event coordinator.

“It will also help educate the masses on online shopping as well as help online platforms make three to four times their usual revenue,” he added.

Rafi, who is also CEO of participating online platform MuslimMarket.com, said most customers would make the obvious choices of Muslim fashion or electronics their primary shopping-list items at the discount fair.

He attributes this to people’s depth of passion for showing off their Ramadhan spirit.

Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, comprising 90 percent of its 250 million people, who every Ramadhan spend up big on festivities.

Rafi also predicted that there would be a more significant spike in sales during the June event, following the success of the May 26 event during which some vendors reported a surge in sales and web traffic compared to regular days.

High-end online fashion platform BrandOutlet experienced a four-fold boost in its transaction rate on May 26, with many of its customers taking advantage of their 80 percent discounts.

Its site traffic was also multiplied by four as their average starting price of Rp 200,000 proved to be no deterrent for customers.

The site’s chief operating officer Andry Huzain commented that usually people began their Ramadhan shopping at least two weeks before the season began, thus encouraging preparedness by online vendors for the busy season ahead.

He voiced his high hopes of repeating the transaction and traffic performance of the first online sales event again on June 24, when he is projecting that both figures will increase four to five times the usual rates.

“In the June event, we’re also expecting a rise in Muslim fashion purchases, which would suit the timing better as the event is in the middle of the season.

At the first event, we sold a lot of ordinary long dresses and gave out a lot of vouchers,” Andry said on Friday.

The country aims to see a total of US$130 billion worth of e-commerce transactions by 2020. Currently, Indonesia’s e-commerce market is estimated to have totalled Rp 18 trillion ($1.3 billion) in 2015, with 37 million consumers making purchases.

Those figures are up from Rp 12 trillion and 27 million consumers recorded in 2014.

As for 2016, the association predicts that the e-commerce market turnover will total Rp 25 trillion and reach 49 million consumers.

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