Insight: E-Commerce Sites in Indonesia

Tokopedia. Tokopedia is the biggest e-commerce site in Indonesia. Since its launch, tokopedia has attracted local and international investors. Local holding company, PT Indonusa Dwitama, and a Singapore-based company focusing on internet business ventures, EastVenture, were the prior investors of the site. Recently, a Japanese investment company, CyberAgent Venture, has also announced to invest in tokopedia. The estimation of the value of this site is $ 7.000.000.

Plasa.com. Plasa.com is owned by a government telecommunication company, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom Indonesia). This site was actually one of the first e-commerce sites in Indonesia, published in 1998. However, due to the collapse of online businesses in Indonesia in the early 2000's, the site stopped operating. Later it was re-published in 2010.

Krazymarket. With the tagline “What are you KRAZY for?” (They keep on changing their taglines. This is actually their third in two years), krazymarket provides a niche-commerce site, focusing on unique, collectibles and hard-to-find items. In 2010, krazymarket received the title as “Best E-Commerce” at SparX Up Award 2010, a web competition event for digital start ups in Indonesia.

Look and Feel

“First impression says it all”. The looks of homepages give certain feelings to the visitors. Of course, every website desires to be trusted, interesting, unique, and to provide all kinds positive feelings  to their visitors. Therefore, I will go through each site and describe the look and feel that I got.

1. Tokopedia

Overall, the homepage can be described with two words “very green”; although it is not a big problem, seeing that they try to stick with their main color scheme and it also fits the logo. However, the languages that they use in the site pretty much bother me. If you look at the menu tab, the terms are all in English (Product, Shop, People, etc). Now take a look at the left side bar and you will see the terms in Indonesian about how to buy and sell. If you scroll all the way down, again, you see all the terms in English. Basically, it gives me the impression of inconsistency and can be perceived as non-friendly to foreign visitors.

2. Plasa.com

Basically, I like the design of their homepage. It is simple, clean, and clear; looks professional. I also like the big javascript slideshow on the top, it is attractive and informative for visitors to know the featured products that they offer. Overall, I like it. What do you think?

3. Krazymarket

The first time I saw the site, it reminded me of Hyves, Dutch social media (maybe because the color scheme is more or less the same). Overall, the homepage layout is quite general, but it is ok. However, as a niche commerce site, they do not really sell their uniqueness on the homepage; you would not know their niche until you read the “about us”. The plus side of this site is that visitors can choose between English and Indonesian.

Transaction and Checkout

1. Tokopedia

Like most e-commerce sites, buyers must register in order to complete the transaction. When buyers decide to buy a product, they will be asked to fill in the form, then continue to check out. The only available payment methods are bank transfers. The overall checkout process in my opinion is okay, not too simple and not too complicated.

2. Plasa.com

Again, buyers must register in order to complete the transaction. In the following steps,  buyers will be guided to fill in the forms. The available payment methods in this site are Klik BCA (the online feature of Bank Central Asia) and credit cards. Basically, the overall checkout experience gives the feeling of (looks like a) fully integrated e-commerce site.

3. Krazymarket

Yes, buyers must register in order to complete the transaction. However, if you are not registered, the register form is put in between the checkout steps, so buyers do not have to leave the page only to register or login. On this site, buyers do the payments using PayPal, which is also quite handy.

… conclusion?

From a look and feel point of view, the three sites are fine. The only thing that they need to check is their consistency on the language, layout, and content. Also they need to be clear on their visions; what are their unique selling points.

If I take a look on transaction and checkout processes of each site, it is interesting because each site provides different payment methods, which could be one of the factors to attract visitors/buyers. They should also make the process simpler.

Overall, based on those two points of view, my favorite goes to plasa.com. The site is simple and the checkout process is structured. And based on what I read, plasa.com has teamed up with mega e-commerce site, eBay, since last year. I guess now I know why the site gives me a different feeling than the other two.