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Melissa Siska Juminto and the journey of growth and excellence
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Nicknamed Mel by her close acquaintances, Melissa is the new president of the GoTo e-commerce business unit, known to the wider public as Tokopedia and part of Indonesia’s largest digital ecosystem.
I
n an age of instant gratification, trusting the process has become somewhat of a rare quality. This is not the case for Melissa Siska Juminto.
Nicknamed Mel by her close acquaintances, Melissa is the new president of the GoTo e-commerce business unit, known to the wider public as Tokopedia and part of Indonesia’s largest digital ecosystem.
During its start-up days in 2012, Melissa joined Tokopedia as its 44th employee and sole accountant, where two years later she became vice president of business. Her expertise in managing the business is reflected in the way she prioritizes company financial analysis in planning business-growth strategies.
One of Melissa’s co-workers, Tokopedia Academy lead Siti Fauziah, remembered fondly the early days, where “everyone was doing everything because the team was still small”.
“When Melissa became a corporate accountant, she also paid great attention to business development through the Business & Marketing team and handling cooperation with banking and logistics partners. She also participated in monitoring data analysis of every investment issued for advertising activities. Even from her first days, Melissa has indeed played the role of company leader," she said.
That leader mindset has indeed brought Melissa recognition, as she was appointed chief operating officer in 2018, a role making her responsible for the entire company's operations, which include office operations, driving business growth to becoming the CEO’s partner in formulating business directions and policies.
Under her leadership as COO, Tokopedia managed to become the only Indonesian company to be included in the list of companies with the fastest growth based on revenue in the Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500 index by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte) in 2020, where Tokopedia managed to record a growth of 608 percent.
The role of GoTo's CHRO came in 2022, where Melissa also became responsible for overseeing all human resource functions, including the business partners, rewards, people integration and community experience teams.
Another accolade soon followed, this time for Melissa personally. Her determination and success in driving business growth at Tokopedia landed her in the “40 Under 40” list by Fortune Indonesia in 2022, which highlights figures capable of being an agent of change in the business sector. She was also selected as one of nine business leaders in Asia to be awarded by Michael Page for her achievements in guiding the company toward long-term success in an ever-changing business landscape.
Business relevance through product innovation
Look around you, and chances are you will find a product, a meal, or a service provided by an MSME.
MSMEs play an important role in the Indonesian economy, accounting for 99 percent of all businesses in the country, absorbing 96.9 percent of the total workforce and contributing 61 percent of the national GDP in 2021.
Under Melissa’s leadership, during the pandemic where many MSMEs were hit hard, Tokopedia ensured its commitment to become the community's reliable platform for meeting daily needs, strengthening the resilience of local businesses, as well as helping drive Indonesia's economic recovery.
One of Tokopedia's many initiatives during the pandemic was the Hyperlocal Initiative, which aims to bring buyers closer to the nearest sellers, thus providing a bigger stage for local businesses and creating opportunities, even in the midst of a pandemic.
Since its launch in April 2020, the Hyperlocal Initiative has contributed to boosting sales and maintaining the Indonesian economy amid a pandemic. This initiative was continued even after the easing of public activity restrictions (PPKM) at the end of 2022.
In research released by Tokopedia together with the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), the average sales index in cities with Hyperlocal Tokopedia increased 147 percent in the 2020-2021 period compared to 2017-2019. This research also shows the average sales index in cities with Hyperlocal is five times greater than cities without the initiative.
In the same period, this initiative was able to restrain the rate of increase in unemployment and poverty where cities with hyperlocal had a lower poverty rate of 0.14 percent compared to cities without hyperlocal.
To support the acceleration of company profitability, Melissa and her team also launched Tokopedia Marketing Solutions, a comprehensive marketing solution to help businesses achieve promotional goals and generate sustainable business growth. The kit can also help businesses target advertisements to the right consumer profiles by utilizing consumer data according to applicable regulations and the principles of security and personal data protection.
Based on internal data, Tokopedia Marketing Solutions experienced a 17-fold growth in advertising investment value in the first semester of 2022, and growth in the number of strategic partners from medium to large scale sellers as much as 30 times in the same period.
On the other hand, to address Indonesia’s unique logistical challenges, Tokopedia introduced the Dilayani Tokopedia smart warehouse, an order-fulfillment service provider that allows sellers including MSMEs to deposit products in areas with high demand, while helping people get products faster by cheaper postage.
The community also warmly welcomed this innovation as during the third quarter of 2022, the number of buyers using Dilayani Tokopedia increased 1.5 times compared to the same period in the previous year, while the number of transactions more than doubled. In addition, the number of sellers using Tokopedia also more than doubled over the same period.
To keep up with changes in consumer behavior in the social-commerce era, the video streaming channel Tokopedia Play was launched in 2018, allowing viewers to look for inspiration while shopping through various interesting shows, such as live shopping, cooking, sports, creations and others. User enthusiasm for this feature is shown by the more than threefold increase in the number of transactions through Tokopedia Play.
For those looking to make an additional income on the side, the Tokopedia Affiliate program allows users to register as affiliates and promote millions of products on Tokopedia using a special link on their social media. If the product is successfully sold through the link, the affiliate will get a commission of up to 10 percent. Since its launch in March 2022, the number of registered Affiliates has reached the hundreds of thousands of people.
Founders Mentality
In a personal post by Tokopedia founder William Tanuwijaya on the day he handed over his position at Tokopedia to Melissa, he said Melissa had a “founder mentality and a strong sense of ownership of the company”. In recent years, he wrote, it was Melissa who led Tokopedia in its daily routine.
“During her career journey, through her growth mindset, whatever challenges and opportunities are presented, from building a marketing team to a business team from scratch, to the role of accountant, VP, chief of staff, COO and concurrently acting as an interim-CHRO GoTo, [every role] is being carried out optimally,"
“I learned from Mel that anyone can have a founder mentality, not just the founders of the company on the first day. The best leaders in the company all have such a strong sense of ownership, as if they were the founders of the company,” he concluded.
Melissa responded to her new responsibility with optimism: “This leadership baton is of course a very big mandate and trust for me. One thing is certain, Indonesia will remain Tokopedia's main focus; and strengthening the business fundamentals and building technology infrastructure are the keys to drive us toward the goal of digital-economic equality."
"By building a Super Ecosystem with GoTo, we want Tokopedia to further encourage the growth of local MSMEs throughout Indonesia, while increasing financial inclusion and making the lives of hundreds of millions of Indonesians easier through technology."
"Through integration, collaboration and common vision within the GoTo ecosystem, we also hope to create a digital ecosystem that is stronger, more comprehensive and independent toward further rounds of business growth," she concluded.
