Bukalapak Collaborates with Standard Chartered to Promote Financial

Bukalapak has just announced a strategic partnership with Standard Chartered to launch an innovation with a mission to advance digital banking. This partnership is also supported by Nexus, a banking-as-a-service solution from SC Ventures.

Through this partnership, Bukalapak and Standard Chartered are determined to expand their mission of realizing easy access to financial services for consumers throughout Indonesia.

“Trade and financial services are important aspects of people’s welfare, therefore, this partnership increases our enthusiasm for a just economy in Indonesia,” said Bukalapak CEO Rachmat Kaimuddin in an official statement received, Friday (15/1/2021).

Later, the collaboration between the two companies includes several things. One of them is presenting innovation in services and e-commerce through more innovative financial services. In addition, the cooperation is expected to simultaneously encourage financial inclusion in Indonesia.

This is supported by Bukalapak’s ability to reach 100 million users and 13.5 million MSME players in the country. Standard Chartered, in its latest survey, said that the pandemic has become a catalyst for the growth of online financial activity.

Through a survey entitled Future Money: How Covid-19 changed our financial habit, it was found that 56 percent of Indonesian consumers now prefer online purchases and payments. That number has increased by 16 percent compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic. Then there are 80 percent of respondents that expect Indonesia to become a cashless country by 2025.

Cluster CEO of Standard Chartered, Indonesia & ASEAN Markets (Australia, Brunei & the Philippines), Andrew Chia said that they believe their partnership with one of Indonesian unicorns will allow them to jointly create solutions that drive financial inclusion in Indonesia.

Bukalapak Records Transaction Increase of 130 Percent in 2020

It should be noted, in the midst of the economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bukalapak is still showing resilience. In 2020, Bukalapak recorded an increase in EBITDA of 80 percent and an increase of 4 million peddlers and partners.

“There was a 37 percent increase in the number of internet users in Indonesia during the pandemic and at Bukalapak itself, there was a significant increase in our sellers and partners. This is both a fact and an opportunity that digital trading platforms have a relevant and essential role today,” said Rachmat Kaimuddin, CEO of Bukalapak.

Rachmat also added, to strengthen Bukalapak’s operations and business, there are three aspects that become Bukalapak’s focus, namely talent or human resources, growth, and capital.

By strengthening these three aspects, Rachmat believes Bukalapak can become a sustainable company to realize its mission, namely to become a technology company capable of creating an equal economy for all.

“We are aware that with limited space during a pandemic, e-Commerce is essential for the community. For this reason, we want to ensure that operations can run normally and optimally without neglecting employee safety,” said Rachmat.

Transactions Increased 17% Every Month

An increase of more than 130 percent was also seen in the value of transactions at Bukalapak during 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

This achievement, among others, was due to the development of features and services, both on the marketplace and O2O (online to offline) platforms, which were considered effective in responding to needs and problems in the community.

“Throughout 2020, we saw an increase in transactions in Bukamall by 17 percent each month. In addition, to help traders in marketing their products, we will apply super seller rates of only 0.5 percent,” said VP of Marketplace Bukalapak Kurnia Rosyada, adding.

In addition, Mitra Bukalapak, which is one of the company’s strategies in penetrating the market which is still dominated by conventional transactions, also recorded encouraging growth.

Bukalapak Partners recorded an increase of 50 percent during 2020. CEO of Buka Mitra Indonesia, Howard Gani said that during this pandemic, the process of digital penetration for shops and digital agents is accelerating.