As the government implemented the regulations for large scale restriction on movement, e-commerce business are seeing sharp increases in use.
Activities relating to shipping good have jumped significantly since Jakarta imposed large scale social restrictions (PSBB).
The policy took effect on Friday 10th April 2020 in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Online traders say they have been ‘flooded’ with orders. Because of the appeal to socially distance and work from home, many customers have abandoned physical shopping in favour of online platforms.
Chairperson of the Indonesian Logistics Association (ALI) Zaldy Ilham Masita says shipments in several product categories have increased. “For several categories such as food, medical devices, and food ingredients that rose dramatically,” he said.
The increase reached up to 200% when compared to normal conditions. However, there were other products that dropped significantly in terms of product shipments due to the coronavirus pandemic itself. “There were only three categories that rose, food, food ingredients, and medical devices, ” he added.
Blibli Senior Vice President of Trade Partnership Fransisca K. Nugraha said there was an increase in transactions on Blibli, especially for fresh food products, vitamins, supplements, and medicines. Fransisca revealed the surge began to be felt following the government’s appealed to the community to be at home and implement a policy of working from home.
Head of Corporate Communications of Bukalapak Intan Wibisono stated that currently the increase is quite significant, even reaching double digits, however they still have to make sure that there are no sellers that increase the price of goods.
On the other hand, Tokopedia’s VP Corporate Communications, Nuraini Razak stated that it has punished thousands of naughty online shops who have tried to take advantage of the situation. Permanent closures are being enforced for those who commit fraud or inflate the price of urgently sought-after products.
Tokopedia has permanently closed thousands of online stores and banned the display of tens of thousands of products that are proven to violate the rules. “We also continue to do regular sweeping to ensure products sold on the Tokopedia platform comply with regulations,” he said.
Source: CNN Indonesia & Detik
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