Desty’s Optimism Boosts Social Commerce as a Sustainable Business

It is undeniable, social commerce is one of the business verticals in startups that have benefited since the pandemic. Restrictions on social interaction automatically encourage the enthusiasm of industry players to seek income without having to step out of the house.

This can not be separated from the features on social media, such as “Instagram Story” which helps sellers in marketing their products.

Moreover, the concept of social commerce is closely related to the realm of e-commerce. Quoting from the Econsultancy report, by 2025, the e-commerce market is projected to exceed $100 billion per year.

This has also boosted the popularity of social commerce. Desty is one of the social commerce players who has been present since October 2020, aka during the pandemic.

In a short time, Desty was able to convince the market that the business model being promoted is the next big thing that will grow with the e-commerce industry – which is projected to be the supporter of the digital economy in Indonesia.

Social Commerce Business Cake

Various studies state that this social commerce business cake is in line with the use of the internet connected to smartphone devices.

For example, citing the Econsultancy report with Magento and Hootsuite in October 2019 entitled “The State of Social Commerce in Southeast Asia”, the social commerce industry is projected to grow significantly.

Southeast Asia has more than 350 million internet users and 90% of them are already connected with smartphones. According to a Research and Markets report, in 2022, its market value will reach $8.6 billion and will increase to $86.7 billion in 2028.

In general, enabler platforms such as Desty provide services to facilitate the management of goods and transaction systems. In addition to Desty, several platforms that are trying to help social commerce players are ArrangeToko, Avana, Minin, Tokotalk, and several others.

“We have four products, all of which consolidate all the pain points that have not been given by the existing social commerce players so far, that’s why Desty is here,” said Shintia.

Desty provides four types of digital solution services, namely Desty Menu, which makes it easy for restaurants to create digital menus. This menu, which is specially designed for the hospitality and F&B industry, is integrated with payment features and QR codes to make transactions easier.

Next, Desty Omni, a platform for managing stock and store orders which is very helpful for online selling activities.

Desty Store, which is a website creation platform for online stores; and Desty Page, a landing page service provider that is optimized for links on social media accounts, especially Instagram — the concept is similar to Linktree or Oneblink developed by MTARGET.

Make Online Business Sustainable

Conceptually, continued Shintia, Desty consolidates all of its products, from the front-end to the back-end, making it easier for online sellers to operate. In fact, to operate Desty Page, for example, you don’t need someone who has to understand technology, even ordinary mothers can use it.

One example of success that Desty has proven successful is a new entrepreneur, a housewife in Medan who started selling a baby shop in the conventional way. After the pandemic, he began to shift his business to social media platforms and began to learn how to sell online with Desty.

“This lady followed all of our directions, to be diligent in creating content, taking advantage of all the features in Desty, until finally her sales turnover increased by 300%. The sales on his social media platform even exceed the sales on the marketplace store that he created.”

Shintia claims that so far the solutions presented by social commerce players before Desty was present were scattered, manual processes were still needed, and had not been fully consolidated. In fact, for sellers, sales channels that come from anywhere are a daily problem.

Besides being supported by comprehensive features, Shintia’s Desty business model supports online businesses to grow together. The company does not charge a subscription fee for users, aka all features can be used for free. The company only charges a service fee for successful transactions.