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9 Popular E-Commerce Sites in Indonesia

Our listing of popular e-commerce sites in Indonesia back in 2011 proved popular - but now it’s 2013 and time to update it. Recently we’ve seen several sites rise in the country, while others stumbled. This brand-new list should give you a fresh look at the Indonesian online shopping scene:


1. Kaskus


The largest Indonesian forum site is Kaskus, which is also a major shopping hub. Although it has had its rough moments, it’s still the one to beat when it comes to C2C e-commerce platforms in Indonesia. The site has revamped its look and user interface, as well as releasing mobile apps last year.

Users can sell pretty much anything on Kaskus, and they will most definitely have buyers inside. A lot of sellers make their money browsing through Kaskus’ pages every day to post and advertise their goods on other users’ forum threads.

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The site has yet to score notable success monetizing its payment method called KasPay from its huge user-base. But the upcoming Kaskus Marketplace feature might be able to rectify that as KasPay will be used as the main payment system on that feature.

kaskus
kaskus

Alexa Ranking: Kaskus is globally ranked 361st, and ninth in Indonesia, beaten only by news portal Detik to be the nation’s second-highest ranking Indonesian site.


2. TokoBagus


TokoBagus is another C2C marketplace which is which is confidently rising to the top in Indonesia. Users can post their ads for free there. The company itself is quite aggressive in placing their video ads everywhere.

TokoBagus had a great 2012, snatching numerous e-commerce awards in various categories like best user interface, and marketing strategy. The company also became the second most searched brand in the country according to Google Zeitgeist at that time. In the same year, the company also saw its founders leaving the business in order for them to explore new adventures.

tokobagus
tokobagus

Alexa Ranking: TokoBagus is placed at 891 globally, and it is ranked as the 15th most popular website in the country.


3. Berniaga


It seems that C2C marketplaces rule the Indonesian e-commerce scene as Berniaga is placed in third when it comes to online shopping sites. As of May last year, the company claimed to have around 15,000 new ads posted daily on its site. Berniaga is owned by Singapore Press Holding and Norway-based Schibsted Classified Media.

berniaga
berniaga

Alexa Ranking: Berniaga’s global rank is 1,728th. But in Indonesia, the company is sitting strong at 22nd.


Looking at the three top Indonesian e-commerce sites according to Alexa, TokoBagus seems to be the biggest spender for promotional efforts, with Berniaga having the least online exposure. When it comes to user interface, one might say that Kaskus is the least friendly because users need to click the links first if they want to view the products’ pictures. Sometimes its users don’t even post pictures of it. Kaskus might have something to say about this with its upcoming Kaskus marketplace though.

In the end, if I wanted to sell or buy products on a C2C platform, the name Kaskus and TokoBagus would come up first before Berniaga. That may be attributed to the fact that Kaskus is quite famous already and has its remarks such as “agan” (to address people) and “cekidot” (means check it out) used by many people even outside the Kaskus forum. And there’s also the fact that TokoBagus has been spending quite a lot of dough for promotions.


4. Multiply


The Multiply marketplace enables its users to set up their shops rather than just posting ads or threads of their goods online. In this way, it’s more like China’s Taobao, which was such a huge success in that country. The site also offers its users several payment options like bank transfers and credit cards, as well as free delivery promotions now and then. Multiply is readying itself to fully become an e-commerce site in 2013 by closing its blogging platform and rebranding.

multiply indonesia
multiply indonesia

Alexa Ranking: In Indonesia, Multiply is ranked 47th, and it also has quite an international presence, ranking 17th in the Philippines and 170th in India. Globally, the site is ranked at 705th.


5. Bhinneka


Bhinneka might be the biggest Indonesian online store which specializes in selling electronics. The company is one of the oldest Indonesian online stores with its website launched as early as 1999. Originally started as a B2C marketplace, it also recently started a C2C marketplace called Bursa Bhinneka.

Users can purchase goods from the site using several payment methods like cash on delivery or credit cards. Deliveries made inside Jakarta area are free of charge.

bhinneka
bhinneka

Alexa Ranking: Bhinneka has a global rank of 3,978th. But its presence in Indonesia is quite strong, ranked 54th locally.


6. Lazada Indonesia


Lazada Indonesia may be the fastest growing e-commerce company in Indonesia right now. Established just last year, Lazada Indonesia took the country by storm and has earned nationwide coverage in just a short period of time. Some of its exposure is partly thanks to its huge ammunition of money derived from endless investments gathered by parent company, Rocket Internet.

Lazada is an Amazon-like B2C store, and regularly offer discounts on its wide range of products. The company is planning to offer a one-day delivery service in the near future. Other Lazada branches across Southeast Asia are also making significant progress.

lazada indonesia
lazada indonesia

Alexa Ranking: In less than one year, Lazada Indonesia is now ranked 53rd in the country. Globally, it is ranked 4,374th.


7. Tokopedia


Launched in 2009, C2C marketplace Tokopedia (1) achieved huge growth across the years. During its third anniversary last August, the team shared with us that they have recorded around 600 percent growth compared to 2011, in terms of total value of transactions processed. I find Tokopedia’s price range feature interesting, as it sorts out the variety of prices available for the same product, making it easy for customers to find the cheapest price there.

tokopedia
tokopedia

Alexa Ranking: Currently Tokopedia ranks 68th in the country. Worldwide, it is ranked at 5,199.


8. Agoda


Agoda is a hotel booking site focused on the Asia Pacific market. Users can search a list of available hotels in a specific city, and then add filter search options like hotel name, price range, hotel facilities, and star rating. Interestingly, Agoda promises to offer the lowest price available online by either matching or beating other online prices shown by users.

agoda
agoda

. Alexa Ranking: Agoda is occupying the 78th spot in Indonesia, with an impressive ranking of 566 globally.


9. Facebook


Wait, what? Yes we are fully aware that Facebook is first and foremost a social networking site, but Indonesians are also using it to sell their goods online too. A research by online payment processor Veritrans and tech blog DailySocial shows that Facebook is among one of the most used sites in Indonesia for people to do their shopping online, it shared the number one spot, in fact, with Kaskus.

Do remember that Indonesia is the fourth largest Facebook nation with 47 million users inside it. Startups like LakuBgt and Onigi are using this opportunity to help people set up their shops on Facebook. Payments can be processed through the social networking site too.

facebook
facebook

Alexa Ranking: Well, it is Facebook we’re talking about. The site ranks second in Indonesia as well as worldwide.

Looking to 2013

There are of course other notable e-commerce sites which are looking to grab a slice of the Indonesian market. Rakuten Belanja Indonesia (pictured below, left) and BliBli (pictured below, right) are among the big names that have graced the country with discounts and ads, and rightly so, looking from the respective company owners. Rakuten is a joint venture between Japan-based Rakuten Inc. and Indonesian media conglomerate MNC Media Group. While BliBli is backed by the nation’s wealthiest conglomerate Djarum Group and one of the biggest banks in the country, BCA.

rakuten belanja online
blibli

What about daily deals sites in the country? Groupon’s Disdus is staying on their feet with ranking of 200 locally, but its clones, like DealKeren, which is backed by LivingSocial, has slipped up significantly in the past year. Now it is ranked 18,040 compared to its position of 219 in 2011. But a few sites like AdaDiskon still have a grip on the market, ranking 1,259 in Indonesia.

Unless you have money to burn, an outright daily deals clone sites might not be the best answer. A few Indonesian startups have the guts to be different, putting a few twists on their daily deals business models. They include Uluyu (which has also fallen behind the peck), Stilomo, and Yotomo. It remains to be seen if their innovation can bring the excitement back to daily deals businesses.

I personally believe that the market is still open for vertical e-commerce sites, and we’ve seen a few of them pop up such as Fresh foods e-tailer RumahSegar (1), babycare e-commerce site Bilna (1), gift site FlowerAdvisor, and Rocket Internet’s fashion online store Zalora Indonesia. Japan-based Sukamart has also arrived as one of the first online grocery stores to offer nationwide delivery services in the country.

Indonesian online shopping infrastructure is shaping up for the better as we’ve seen local startups like Eloku and Kirim, which are aiming to solve delivery problems. A handful of promising payment gateway startups like iPayMu, Veritrans, and Indomog have emerged as well. 2013 might well be a good year to start your own e-commerce business.


  1. Disclosure: Tokopedia, RumahSegar, and Bilna are part of East Ventures portfolio companies, and East Ventures is also an investor in Tech in Asia. Read our ethics page for more information.


The post 9 Popular E-Commerce Sites in Indonesia appeared first on Tech in Asia.