Tokopedia and Shoe Business Activists Collaborate to Support Local

Tokopedia and local shoe business activists collaborate to support the development of MSMEs, especially shoes. This is implemented through a movement entitled Bersebelas #MelangkahBareng. There are at least 10 local business activists, one of which is a well-known local shoe brand, Never Too Lavish.

Senior Lead Fashion at Tokopedia, Aldhy Darmayo, said this movement could open up business opportunities during a pandemic. “This joint effort is aimed at supporting local SME shoe activists in maintaining business and jobs in the midst of the pandemic as well as encouraging more people to use domestic products,” he said in a written statement.

This collaboration is also motivated by the enthusiasm of the community in meeting fashion needs online. There was an increase in transactions in the Fashion category on Tokopedia, which reached almost 2x during December 2020 when compared to the initial period of the pandemic last year. Shoe product transactions also increased almost 2x.

“There was an increase in transactions in the Fashion category at Tokopedia, which almost doubled during December 2020 when compared to the initial pandemic period in 2020,” said Aldhy. Meanwhile, the founder of NTL, Bernhard Suryaningrat said that this collaborative movement was a form of support for fellow local industry players.

“The #MelangkahBareng Eleven Movement is a form of support for fellow artists and local industry players to rise together. By utilizing digital platforms such as Tokopedia, it is hoped that the local shoe industry can be more advanced even amid a pandemic, ”said NTL Founder Bernhard Suryaningrat or who is familiarly called Abeng.

In this campaign, Tokopedia and NTL collaborated with 10 other local shoe brands, namely Patrobas, Pijakbumi, Fuse Concept, Nokha, Seji, Exodos, Ortuseight, FYC, Rafheoo and Brodo. “Every month, we will release a collaborative product entitled ‘Eleven Series’ which the public can get exclusively on Tokopedia,” added Abeng.

Content Creators Appreciate This Collaboration

On the other hand, Content Creator and Shoe Lovers, Denis Juherman, appreciated this collaboration. He considered, during the pandemic, many local industries offered creativity and quality that were not inferior to foreign products.

“Hopefully, through this collaboration, more Indonesians will know and use Indonesian products,” said Denis. For information, Tokopedia recorded an increase in transactions by one of the local business activists, Nokha, reaching nearly 250 percent. Another example, Brodo, recorded an almost 5.5-fold increase in transactions.

Aldhy hopes that more and more parties will collaborate more aggressively in helping business activists in Indonesia, especially MSMEs, continue to contribute to restoring the economy. Given that MSMEs contribute more than 60 percent of state revenue.

“It is time for us to uphold the sense of pride made in Indonesia, a habit that can encourage MSMEs to become dominant in their own country, in order to bring a more independent national economy,” he said.

The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) also noted that the Indonesian footwear industry has 2.8% share of the global market. The average price for exported products is US$ 16.7 or IDR 244.8 thousand and is considered competitive.

Tokopedia Always Supports Local MSMEs to Continue to Grow

Tokopedia’s External Communications Senior Lead, Ekhel Chandra Wijaya, explained that the application has been helping to increase the market share of MSMEs. Ekhel said there were more than 10 million sellers who trade through Tokopedia.

This amount is equivalent to almost 100% of MSMEs and 94% of the ultra-micro scale that market products on Tokopedia. Ekhel added that Tokopedia continues to carry out programs to support local Indonesian products. This includes during the pandemic.

“Tokopedia continues to encourage local products to compete. We appreciate the extraordinary role of MSMEs during the pandemic, even though Tokopedia continues to support local products to remain competitive and of high quality,” he said.