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On-demand digital business beyond shopping
A Gojek driver delivers food to a customer
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A Gojek driver delivers food to a customer. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
We’re often spoiled by technology. Thanks to the variety of apps available, we can shop from home, order goods and services, pay for them online and then have them delivered to our doorstep.
Although shopping online sounds practical, it can get tricky as well. To avoid the pitfalls, as a customer you should have basic knowledge of the app-based business: which shops provide the best services, genuine goods, fastest delivery and competitive prices.
A common disappointing experience is that the merchandise you receive is not the same as that pictured online.
Aghnes Winda, a Mandarin translator for High Speed Railways Contractors Consortium (HSRCC), shared her two cents on online shopping. “I received fake goods once.”
She used to buy things from different online shops until she found a trusted local e-commerce company that sold imported goods at reasonable prices with punctual delivery. She learned it was a subsidiary of one of China’s largest e-commerce companies.
“It’s pleasing to have merchandise arrive from overseas, although you have to wait longer, about two weeks. But the advantage is that you’re guaranteed a replacement if you’re dissatisfied with the merchandise. If that’s the case, you have to wait even longer for a replacement,” she says, chuckling.
While regular consumers like Aghnes rely only on a single app to buy goods, entrepreneurs like Luvita Rinjani use multiple apps to buy and resell merchandise, especially cat toys — her core business.
“Doing business with online shops connects us [entrepreneurs] to [internet-based transportation] apps, such as Gojek and Grab, so I don’t have to worry about delivery methods,” Luvita says.
Nowadays, suppliers offer warranties, assuring replacements or buybacks for faulty or unsuitable products. This gives customers a sense of security in doing business online.
There is much more than just selling and buying in e-commerce. App makers have also created other nonbusiness features. Indonesia’s on-demand services app Gojek, for example, has added features like an “emergency button” and “share my trip” intended as a security measure for its ride-hailing passengers.
If pressed, the emergency button, represented by a shield logo, connects customers to the Gojek emergency hotline. “Share my trip” broadcasts the customer’s current location and helps other people track them down in case of an emergency.
In addition, Gojek also launched Gojek wirausaha (entrepreneurship), a program that focuses on women’s empowerment by giving training sessions to 15,000 micro, small and medium enterprises in more than 30 cities across Indonesia.
Zilingo, a digital business media specializing in fashion, recently launched a decentralized manufacturing program called SheWorkz, focusing on women in micro businesses.
The participants need to qualify before being enrolled in a training course for 20 days. The vocational courses include batik making, pattern design, sewing, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. The program is funded by Zilingo.
At the end of the training program, the participants are regrouped based on skill levels and areas of residence to start “micro manufacturer”. Those micro manufacturers will be linked to Zilingo’s global market, through which they will get the chance to receive orders from clothing brands. Zilingo provides micro businesses financial access to credit from its partners.
It looks like digital magic is going to spoil people in many more ways in the future. Online transactions, home delivery and international business networking are but a few possibilities.
