While large firms have been reaping the benefits of going online in the past several years, many smaller firms have finally decided to join the online shopping frenzy every year on Dec. 12.

This year’s National Online Shipping Day (Harbolnas), mostly associated with young shoppers, has set out to involve more micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as sellers in its massive shopping event, aside from merely encouraging people to shop online.

For the first time since its launch on Dec. 12, 2012, Harbolnas’s mission has shifted to increase the number of MSMEs using online platforms as sales tools to scale up their businesses.

“We’d like to push MSMEs across Indonesia to grow digitally and minimize the gap for daily needs across the country,” Harbolnas team chairman Achmad Alkatiri said on Wednesday.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration has sought to support micro and small firms, which make up 93.4 percent of businesses across the archipelago and are essential to improving the country’s economy.

This year, the Harbolnas team went on a roadshow for MSMEs nationwide to raise awareness about the benefits of joining online marketplaces such as Bukalapak, Lazada, Shopee and Elevenia, among others.

The roadshow stopped at Surabaya in East Java, Medan in North Sumatra and Makassar, in South Sulawesi.

As a result, while most MSMEs rely on social media to run their business, some 300 have decided to join the previously mentioned marketplaces and Harbolnas.

Umi Tursini, 36, owner of Salvo Shoes based in Malang, East Java, said that her decision to join an online marketplace has had a positive impact on her business.

“We don’t have to deal directly with customers in a [digital] marketplace. The platform already has its own system for transactions, payments, complaints and even its own warehouse,” she told The Jakarta Post.

“Lazada, for example, has a FBL [Fulfilled by Lazada] service, which includes a warehouse that can store hundreds of pairs of Salvo Shoes [and will ship them] — for faster [deliveries].”

Umi’s 8-month-old business currently receives some 1,800 orders daily — many of which comprise several pairs of shoes — from only one a day when she first started. Additionally, Lazada directs payments to sellers a week after purchases.

This year’s Harbolnas will include 254 marketplaces as well as individual retailers selling goods ranging from fashion and home decoration to pet care and show tickets. Organizers are targeting to earn Rp 4.95 trillion (US$365.9 million), or a 50 percent year-on-year (yoy) increase.

The event will offer discounts of up to 95 percent, as well as promotions from payment gateways and courier services.

Although public spending grew relatively slow in the third quarter at 4.39 percent yoy, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), e-commerce businesses have boasted of exponential growth.

State lender Bank Mandiri, the official bank partner of Harbolnas, aims to record Rp 100 billion in credit card transactions on Dec. 12, double last year’s figure.

“This isn’t an over-optimistic target because, as of November, credit card transactions for online shopping has grown by 70 percent,” said Haris Budiman, Bank Mandiri group vice president for credit cards.

Online transactions using Mandiri credit cards are expected to hit Rp 1.5 trillion this year.

Still, the figure represents less than 10 percent of the total transactions made with the bank’s credit cards.

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