P

ublicly listed PT Metrodata Electronics, a distributor of information and communication technology (ICT) devices and solutions, plans to introduce two e-commerce platforms this year to avail of opportunities offered by the country’s growing e-commerce industry.

Through its subsidiary PT Synnex Metrodata Indonesia (SMI), a major distributor of Dell and Lenovo personal computers, Metrodata will launch in the second half of this year a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce application, said president director Susanto Djaja on Wednesday. At around the same time, Metrodata will launch another application serving business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce through PT My Icon technology, its subsidiary in the ICT modern retail business.

Susanto said Metrodata’s expansion into e-commerce was part of the company’s strategy to achieve its sales target this year.

The company has set a sales target of Rp 11.1 trillion (US$832.5 million) by the end of this year, which is an 11 percent increase in total sales from around Rp 10 trillion in 2015. The growth rate target, however, is lower than the company’s performance last year, which saw an 18 percent sales increase from the Rp 8.4 trillion it booked in 2014.

Last year, the company booked Rp 226.6 billion in net profit, an increase of 27.5 percent from to 2014’s Rp 177.8 billion.

SMI president director Agus Honggo Widodo said the company had set aside Rp 5 billion to develop its B2B e-commerce platform, in which SMI would sell electronics devices, including computers, smartphones and tablets with on-the-ground support from its 1,500 dealers across the archipelago.

“We will start selling internet of things devices, which will boom in the near future, through the B2B e-commerce platform,” he said.

Meanwhile, through its B2C e-commerce platform, My Icon aims to sell electronic devices to individual and institutional consumers. With the application, customers can also pick up their order at one of the company’s dealers, My Icon general manager Aldriano Medise said.

Data from the company shows that SMI made the biggest contribution to Metrodata’s sales last year with Rp 7.8 trillion, which was an increase of about 15 percent from the former’s sales in 2014.

The increase was made possible because of the company’s efforts to expand its distribution network to areas outside Greater Jakarta, the company’s annual report said, adding that 45 percent of the company’s total revenues last year came from the areas.

In 2016, the total e-commerce market in Indonesia in terms of gross merchandise value is estimated to reach close to $6 billion. Roughly 60 percent of this value is generated by travel related services, for example online airplane tickets and hotel reservations, and the remaining $2.4 billion is made up of actual e-commerce retail sales.

Metrodata’s Susanto also said that the company, through its subsidiary PT Mitra Integrasi Informatika, would also offer cloud services as a new part of its ICT solutions business. Cloud services refer to internet-based services, like online data storage and backup solutions, made available to users by using cloud computing provider’s servers.

Last year, ICT solution business contributed Rp 2.1 trillion in revenue for Metrodata, a 22.7-percent increase from that in 201. (vny)