Shopee Indonesia director Christin Djuarto said the 9.9 event would commence on Aug. 18 and run until Sept. 9.

“We believe the online shopping trend will continue to rise, and we hope that this year’s 9.9 event will exceed last year’s achievement,” she said during an online press conference on Tuesday.

Last year, Shopee recorded around 17 million transactions during the 9.9 event, an almost three-fold increase from 5.8 million transactions in 2018.

E-commerce transactions have increased 26 percent during the pandemic, Bank Indonesia data show.

E-commerce promotions, such as Single’s Day and National Online Shopping Day (Harbolnas), increased online sales last year by 3.7 and 5.3 times, respectively, according to a recent survey by Katadata Insight Center and P2P lender Kredivo.

Beyond the Shopee event, other e-commerce platforms in Indonesia are also set to take part in upcoming promotional events, including Online Shopping Party in October, Singles Day in November and Harbolnas in December.

Management consulting company Redseer previously predicted that Indonesia’s e-commerce growth trajectory would remain positive, with the sector expected to see 50 percent year-on-year growth to be worth US$35 billion this year from $23 billion last year.

Christin added that online shopping trends had changed throughout the year, with grocery purchases becoming popular in the first quarter of the year when people began physical distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Later in the year, during Ramadan and the Idul Fitri holiday, purchases of Islamic clothing rose. Recently, Shopee has seen rising demand for sport and outdoor items, she added.

“To cater to this trend, we will be launching an official Adidas store on our platform,” Christin said, referring to the German sport equipment and accessories giant.

Twitter Indonesia country industry head Dwi Adriansah said the social media platform had seen a 20 percent increase in topics about online shopping during the pandemic.

He added that Twitter had become a new platform for people to post product reviews of items they bought online.

“I believe the online shopping trend and discussions surrounding it will continue to grow,” Dwi told the press. (eyc)

Editor's note: This article has been revised to state that the shopping event will run until Sept. 9.

Popular

PDI-P will likely be part of opposition: Ganjar

Indonesia one step from Olympics after beating South Korea

Bahlil leads task force to boost sugar, bioethanol production in Papua