Based on a survey of 1,112 online consumers, 94 percent of them stated that they preferred shopping through an online merchant that could be easily reached via the platform’s chat rooms such as Whatsapp, LINE and Facebook Messenger. The survey was carried out from May to August this year.

Furthermore, 62 percent of respondents also said they made purchases via chat by transferring payment to a merchant's bank account or transferring through a virtual account to the merchant’s e-wallet on e-commerce platforms.

“Some other interesting facts we discovered were that 52 percent of respondents were uncomfortable chatting with bots in completing transactions and preferred real humans to guide them. Also, 37 percent of respondents chatted with merchants with the intention of bargaining and 26 percent of respondents communicated with merchants to ask for advice on product treatment or maintenance,” said Boston Consulting Group SE Asia managing director and senior partner Ching Fong Ong at the Facebook Indonesia office in Jakarta on Oct.25.

Meanwhile, Facebook Southeast Asia developing countries director of global business Sarita Singh said her side planned to invest more in improving its subplatform Messenger and increasing AdSense and Pop Up exposure to users.

“Based on the results of the Facebook-BCG report on Indonesia, we realize that there is still huge potential to earn more revenue for both merchants who operate on social media and also us as the facilitator,” Sarita said.

Read also: ‘It’s simpler’: Online sellers prefer social media over e-commerce platforms

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