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Consumers prefer buying on user-friendly platforms
Consumers are more inclined to make purchases through social media or online market platforms that apply user-friendly apps and are responsive to their questions, according to a recent study by Facebook Indonesia and Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
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span>Consumers are more inclined to make purchases through social media or online market platforms that apply user-friendly apps and are responsive to their questions, according to a recent study by Facebook Indonesia and Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
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 BCG Southeast 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.
Many small and medium enterprises, especially those focusing on agriculture and small kiosks, are not digitally proficient and unaware that messaging platforms can bring them more income, Sarita told The Jakarta Post on Oct. 28.
Furthermore, fast response and trust-building on social media chatting platforms have been crucial in bringing in more revenue for local mattress company Massindo Group.
“Our customer service operators must reply to customers within five to 10 minutes. Based from experience, if we take longer to respond, most customers will tend to lose interest in purchasing our products or even replying to us,” said Massindo Group corporate business development manager Hardyaz Hasyim.
According to him, marketing mattresses on Facebook or Instagram had been more effective in bringing in customer traffic compared to e-commerce marketplaces. Furthermore, Hardyaz also perceived that Massindo’s customers had the tendency to cross-purchase on social media platforms compared to e-commerce marketplaces.
Meanwhile, Gabriella Citra, the owner of a homecooked meal catering service in Bandung, West Java said she decided to market her products via Instagram because it was simpler to operate as she was able to upload food photos or menus free of charge.
“Also, if I sell through social media, customer payments go directly to my bank account as opposed to waiting for e-commerce marketplaces to transfer it,” said Gabriella recently.
A recent survey showed that Hardyaz and Gabriella’s experience was common among online merchants. The findings of data-driven business consultant Provetic and Courier service start-up Paxel indicated that 84 percent of online micro, small and medium enterprises chose WhatsApp as their main selling platform compared to online
marketplaces.
Among the 535 online sellers surveyed across the country, most people preferred selling their goods through WhatsApp and Instagram (81 percent), versus e-commerce marketplaces such as Shopee (53 percent) and Tokopedia (29 percent).
According to Bank Indonesia data, total transaction value through e-commerce market platforms in the third quarter was recorded at Rp 8.2 trillion (US$584 million). Out of the total, the three most popular products were gadgets at 23 percent, accounting for Rp 1.88 trillion in transactions, fashion at 16 percent, amounting to Rp 1.3 trillion in transactions and computers at 9.8 percent or Rp 9.8 trillion in transactions.
Furthermore, gadgets experienced 138.7 percent growth, fashion enjoyed 255.8 percent growth and computers underwent 60.1 percent growth from the same quarter last year. (bry)
