Store Digitization Startups are Sought by Millions of MSMEs

More than one million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) joined the digital ecosystem during the corona pandemic. Startups digitizing shops or stalls are flooded with new partners. In fact, Gojek’s decacorn started to penetrate this business.

Gojek launched its shop digitization platform, GoToko, last week. The company provides services from upstream to downstream (end to end) such as the creation of an online shop, ordering merchandise from producers to shipping goods.

This jumbo-valued startup also has other services that focus on targeting MSMEs such as GoBiz or the business management platform and food delivery business, GoFood. GoFood partners reached more than 500 thousand.

GoBiz and GrabKios Partners have Increased since March

Meanwhile, GoBiz partners increased by 265 thousand during March-August, bringing the total to more than 600 thousand. “In the last few months, MSMEs feel they have to accelerate their business,” said Gojek’s Head of Merchant Platform Novi Tandjung during a virtual press conference yesterday (15/9).

The Indonesian Decacorn also launched the independent list feature yesterday. This allows MSMEs to register their businesses without calling, sending emails or coming directly to the office. Gojek also launched the #MelajuBersamaGojek initiative to encourage MSMEs to digitize business operations from marketing, ordering, payment, shipping to administration.

“We present a variety of solutions that can be used by all types of MSMEs, from micro to large scale,” said Gojek Co-CEO Andre Soelistyo, last month (10/8). Meanwhile, Grab digitized more than 185 thousand MSMEs and 32 thousand traditional traders during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company acquired a warung digitalization startup, Kudo in 2017, which changed its name to GrabKios in September 2019. Just like GoToko, the service offers merchandise orders. However, Grab expanded its service late last year, allowing consumers to send goods, save gold to buy health, life, education, accident protection and microinsurance at GrabKios partners.

The Singapore-based Decacorn also provides loan access for partners. The corporations that were hooked up to provide financing were Bank Mandiri, Pegadaian, and most recently, Pertamina. Grab also hooked up another shop digitization startup, Warung Pintar.

Warung Pintar Partners Targeted to Enter the Grab Ecosystem

The Co-Founder and CEO of Warung Pintar Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro said 93% of their partners experienced a 28% decline in income at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. This happens because community activities outside the home are limited.

Agung is optimistic that his partner’s income can increase by 50% and even reach more than IDR 50 million per month if he joins GrabMart. Meanwhile, the number of subscribers is estimated to increase by 200-800 per month.

Currently, Warung Pintar has 47 thousand partners. Agung targets at least 400 stalls to enter the GrabMart ecosystem by the end of this year. He also noted that the number of partners who joined increased 35% every month. “We are targeting at least 100 thousand stalls to join by the end of this year,” said Agung on Wednesday (16/9).

Orders at TokoTalk Increased

Orders at TokoTalk startup have also doubled this August. “This increase is influenced by the re-enactment of Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) in DKI Jakarta,” said Head of Business Development TokoTalk Kemas Antonius.  

The total number of TokoTalk’s MSMEs partners is currently around 320 thousand, engaged in fashion, culinary, and others. Apart from being small in scale, this startup is also hooking up with large corporations. The startup launched a new feature, namely fulfillment for logistics management.

TokoTalk plans to partner with three old players who are engaged in fulfillment and warehouse services. With this scheme, TokoTalk’s business grows 30% every month.

Kemas estimates that the gross transaction value or Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) will reach US$ 10 million or around IDR 148.5 billion per month by the end of this year. “We are also targeting to be able to break even or break-even point (BEP) in the near future,” said Kemas.