Bukalapak Releases Property, Legal Consultation, and Logistics Features

E-commerce company Bukalapak is providing a variety of new services during the corona pandemic. These new products include logistics, housing searches, and legal consultations. Most recently, this unicorn-scale startup launched a shipping aggregator service called BukaSend.

Bukalapak Director of Payment, Fintech, and Virtual Products Victor Lesmana said logistics is an important factor for the sustainability and development of e-commerce in Indonesia.

“We realize that from time to time, entrepreneurs of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) face various challenges around this, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Victor as quoted from a press release, Tuesday (29/9). Therefore, the company launched BukaSend.

McKinsey estimates that there are 1.6 billion packages of e-commerce transactions sent per year, by 2022. The number could increase again, given that e-commerce services are increasingly in demand during the pandemic.

Cooperate with Justika to Provide Legal Services

This month, Bukalapak also collaborates with startup Justika to provide legal consulting services to mentoring. The market segment in this sector is still considered wide open.

A study conducted by The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) shows that 71% of Indonesians who experience legal problems choose not to do anything. The availability of legal services in Indonesia is also considered unequal.

This is because the ratio between the number of people and lawyers is 1: 4,325. Therefore, Bukalapak launched a legal consulting service with one of its features, namely TanyaHukum. “Hopefully it can help the community overcome the obstacles they experience when they need legal assistance,” said Victor, last week (22/9).

TanyaHukum connects Justika’s service with 90 million Bukalapak users. It includes three core services, namely consultation, document preparation, and legal assistance. Users can consult dozens of lawyers, either by telephone, chat, or face-to-face.

Launches House Search Feature in the Application

Last July, one of the country’s unicorns also launched a residential search feature called BukaRumah. To provide this service, the homeland unicorn is collaborating with Bank Mandiri. Through this feature, the two companies help consumers buy houses from searching to applying for a Home Ownership Credit (KPR).

Users can also monitor mortgage payments online. Bukalapak is focused on providing various services on the platform. Bukalapak President Teddy Oetomo had said that the company no longer relied on promotional strategies or ‘burning money’ to encourage transactions.

The startup is focused on sustainable business growth. In this way, Bukalapak’s income before interest, tax, and amortization (EBITDA) in the second quarter grew 60% compared to 2018.

“We are looking for solutions and innovations that are needed by society,” said Teddy, some time ago (11/9). “We are reducing massive money burning, and the market share is relatively stable.” Bukalapak CEO Rachmat Kaimuddin added, the company was no longer “struggling” to catch up with the level of visits in the last two years.

“We cannot always focus on growth alone, while the solution does not produce sustainable added value,” he said. Moreover, Bukalapak plans to list its initial public offering (IPO) on the stock exchange.

Bukarumah, which is a manifestation of Bukalapak and Bank Mandiri’s commitment to helping all levels of society in finding the right housing with an easy application system in the new era, has recorded visits of up to 12,000 per day since its launch in mid-July 2020.

Houses and apartments in the Bogor, South Tangerang, Serang, Cirebon, Depok, and Malang areas with prices below Rp1 billion are the most sought after among users.

Executive Vice President of Consumer Loans at Bank Mandiri Ignatius Susatyo Wijoyo in Jakarta, Thursday, invited the public to take advantage of this opportunity to get the dream home with various conveniences and flexibility that can be enjoyed through Bukarumah.