1. Tend to trade in online communities or personal accounts
With the development of Indonesian e-commerce platforms, some sellers with a long-term vision have seized this opportunity to expand their e-commerce business. Even so, many people are still hesitant because they are used to trading in communities or personal accounts formed on Facebook and Instagram. Indonesian consumers prefer to contact sellers directly through social software for online transactions. They believe that sellers will be more enthusiastic and reliable if they adopt this transaction method. But in fact, this payment method is not very safe, and many consumers are easily deceived. E-commerce websites already have a safe payment system that ensures that customers will not suffer losses when trading. In view of this social demand of users, e-commerce platforms can set up customer service on the website, or set up personalized chat robots to help sellers and buyers communicate online.
2. Price determines customer retention rate
Most Indonesian consumers like to visit e-commerce websites with promotions or cheap prices. When the promotion season of the e-commerce website is over, they will turn to look for e-commerce websites with better quality and lower prices. In addition, the average online shopping consumption level of Indonesians is also low, with an average monthly online shopping amount of 481,000 Indonesian rupiah (about 36 US dollars). Through the online shopping amount of Indonesian consumers, it is not difficult to find that competitive prices will become one of the important means to attract repeat customers.
3. The largest traditional festival-Ramadan
There are 6 religions officially recognized by the Indonesian government-Islam, Catholicism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. In 2018, the total population of Indonesia was 268 million, of which the largest population believed in Islam, accounting for about 80% of the total population of Indonesia. Due to its unique national culture, Ramadan in Indonesia is the peak traffic period of e-commerce every year.
One of the most important traditional festivals in Indonesia is Eid al-Fitr. During Ramadan, after Muslims return to their hometowns, in addition to sharing their gains and experiences from working abroad this year with their families, they will also give gifts to their families and give red envelopes to their children, just like the Chinese New Year. Therefore, Ramadan is the peak of shopping consumption in Indonesia in a year, and most people will buy new clothes, food, gifts and some home decorations online. According to the data of Lazada Indonesia in 2018, during the promotion period from June 21 to 28, the GMV of cross-border sellers in Indonesia increased by 2.4 times, and the number of orders doubled. The most popular categories were watches, sunglasses, jewelry, clothing, TV, audio and video and game products.
The most important shopping force in Indonesia is women, who will purchase the items needed to celebrate Ramadan, such as household items and clothing, through online channels. Another popular category that deserves more attention from sellers is household cleaning products, because people want to embrace Ramadan “purely”.