Coffee is one of those things that can be both a daily essential and a lifestyle staple: you can chug it by the liter for the caffeine boost, savor the notes with a manual brew or have it iced and blended at a trendy cafe.
With so many new coffee businesses popping up by the minute, a shrewd business acumen and an eye for the latest developments is key to standing out from the competition. The rapid rate of digitalization in Indonesia has made it clear that going online is the safest bet to stay in business.
One such business is the Yogyakarta-based Space Roastery. Established in 2016 by coffee aficionados William Christiansen and Elvan Wenas, Space Roastery offers high-quality coffee beans as well as freshly brewed coffee drinks, which can be bought through Tokopedia and GoFood.
We caught up with William to have a chat about Space Roastery’s journey and his insights in the business.
When and how did you first become interested in the coffee business?
I've been drinking coffee for a long time, which started from drinking coffee at a coffee shop until I finally decided to learn brewing at home. However, I found it difficult to find a local roastery with satisfactory service; if there was one, the prices were exorbitant.
In the end, I decided to buy my own roaster and started researching coffee bean roasting. From there, I opened a coffee roasting business, which was named Space Roastery.
What business strategy did you apply when you started this Space Roastery business?
When we started our business in 2016, we opened a small shop in Yogyakarta. However, because we were aware that the coffee market in Yogyakarta was limited, we decided to reach a wider market by utilizing the Tokopedia marketplace platform and creating a website.
In the first few months, it turned out that the business had not been maximized in terms of revenue. To increase sales and cover operational costs, Space Roastery finally utilized the GoFood platform, which allows our customers to purchase Space Roastery products easily through the Gojek app.
Since joining GoFood, we have put up a signboard to make it easier for driver partners to find our location. However, many customers think that Space Roastery is a shop that sells coffee drinks. Seeing this as an opportunity, we expanded the business to include ready-to-drink coffee for Space Roastery customers.
Along with the development of the Space Roastery business, we decided to start using Moka Point of Sales (POS) at its outlets to help business operations and Midtrans on the Space Roastery website to reach more customers thanks to its digital payment options. Long story short, Space Roastery continues to grow until today.
What are Space Roastery’s mainstay coffee bean products right now?
Currently, our best selling products are Halu Pink Banana and Gayo Apple Cider. What is unique about the coffee beans that we sell, apart from the premium taste, is the naming and packaging of the products.
We strive to give product names and packaging that can create the right expectations in the customer's mind for the taste of our coffee beans.
In running a coffee business, what is the biggest challenge you face? How do you overcome those challenges?
The challenge when starting a coffee business is the mental barrier. We did not start from an existing coffee community and we tried to bring new products that were different from mainstream products in the market. We always strive to be a differentiator in the Indonesian coffee industry.
In developing the Space Roastery, we always adhere to the business vision that we have set at the beginning, namely increasing coffee consumption in Indonesia through homebrewers and habitual drinkers. In the end, this is the strength and differentiator of Space Roastery compared to our competitors.
Space Roastery has served customers all over the country, from Aceh to Papua.
Did the pandemic affect Space Roastery's business performance?
The pandemic actually had a positive impact on Space Roastery. Due to the limited mobility of the community, the number of homebrewers, which are our main target market, increased significantly.
By utilizing a number of digital solutions, Space Roastery was able to run well during the pandemic. In fact, our sales increased by 143 percent in 2021. The challenges faced by Space Roastery are actually present after the pandemic, where global coffee production has decreased, limiting the supply of coffee beans.
Of the many digital-based business solutions that you have used, which product do you feel has provided the best benefits?
Every business solution we use in the GoTo ecosystem has its own strengths. Tokopedia really helped our sales in the initial phase of our business and GoFood also made it easier for our customers to access our products.
Meanwhile, Moka was very helpful in terms of business operational efficiency and maintaining Space Roastery customer satisfaction through the Loyalty Program. Moka's loyalty program system helps us classify loyal Space Roastery customers, so that we can give the right incentives to loyal customers as a form of our appreciation. Plus, Midtrans as a payment gateway service provider makes it easy for customers to make payments.
Currently, most of the sales also happen online.
After using various digital solutions from GoTo, what innovations do you expect to support the MSME business going forward?
Recently, GoTo has just launched the GoTo Business Partner website mitrausahagoto.com as an integrated source of information for MSMEs. With this website, we as business owners hope to facilitate collaboration through classes and communities in the GoTo ecosystem.
For businesses that are just starting out, apart from being a source of information for GoTo’s digital-based business solutions, the website can also be a source of inspirational stories for business people who have used GoTo's business solutions and successfully developed their business.
I myself have also had the opportunity to share experiences with other business partners several times by being a speaker in the A Cup of Moka class and as a part of the GoTo Financial Retail community (KONTAG).
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are just starting their business?
For prospective entrepreneurs who want to start a business, my message is to never stop learning.
I feel that in the next five to six years, running a digital business is an unavoidable necessity. So never stop learning and keep up with the dynamic changes of the business world.
Also, take advantage of digital solutions that have many choices, one of which is from GoTo that can help not only reach customers, but also help the back-end of business operations. Its educational solution is also quite helpful and encourages us entrepreneurs to be even more curious about developing our business.
