Blibli Expands Omnichannel Business in Medan, Optimizes E-grocery Services

According to the e-Conomy SEA 2022 report, the adoption rate E-commerce in Indonesia has reached 89% --- being the highest in the ranks of digital platforms. This achievement makes E-commerce became the dominating business line in the digital economy with a $59 billion GMV. Business competition in this landscape is also very tight, forcing each player to have a strong value proposition to be accepted by the market share.

Blibli is one of the pioneers in the industry E-commerce Indonesia. Has been present since 12 years ago, the company already go public with the issuer code BUY, it claims business growth from year to year. In Q1 of this year, Total Processing Value (TPV) grew by 78% to IDR 17.915 billion. TPV growth and the company's net income were also supported by organic growth of 1,9 million transaction users.

To be able to compete with the giants E-commerce In addition, one of Blibli's main business strategies today is presenting draft omnichannel to customers. This concept combines the shopping experience online and offline integrated, leveraging retail presence (and warehouse) physically scattered in various cities. This strategy has helped strengthen one of Blibli's business lines, namely services e-grocery via Bliblimart.

Blibli brought the concept e-grocery to Medan

Platform e-grocery intended to help people buy their daily basic needs for free online. This service is also unique to the system  fulfillment and fast logistics. Penetration peak e-grocery was when social restrictions were imposed due to the pandemic several years ago. Even though the pandemic is gone, a number of segments of society are still taking advantage of it e-grocery to help them with their daily shopping.

Blibli is also quite serious in developing this business. In the Jabodetabek area, they take advantage of the Ranch Market distribution --- a retail company that acquired by Blibli in 2021--- as a product fulfillment channel and assisted by a number of dark store at several distribution points. According to an internal report, spending on staples increased at Bliblimart by 23% yoy in the first quarter of 2023. The products that consumers bought the most were groceries, household needs, mother & child needs, and soft drinks & snacks.

Positive growth in the Jabodetabek area has made Blibli expand Bliblimart to a number of other cities, one of which is Medan, North Sumatra. In this area, Blibli specifically cooperates with Maju Bersama Supermarkets (which has around 14 supermarkets) as a strategic partner in fulfilling and distributing goods. Cooperation with retail offline it also allows a number of features to be adopted, eg Click & Collect (choose and pay for the product by online, then pick it up yourself at the store).

“We noted that 4 out of 10 Blibli customers (in Medan) shop for daily needs through the Bliblimart category, where the Click & Collect feature is one of the most used features. The superior products that many customers buy in Medan City are syrup, cooking oil, and milk as the biggest contributors to transactions at Bliblimart," said Head of Blibli North Sumatra Branch Stephany Luchiana.

By utilizing the BES (Blibli Express Service) internal logistics unit and partners, Blibli also provides a 2-hour delivery option for a variety of fresh products. In Medan, the subscription feature for Bliblimart users can also be used to automate the fulfillment of people's daily basic needs. And to ensure operations run well, Blibli also has a unit office and a team dedicated to the Medan area.

Apart from Medan, Blibli has also carried out similar things in a number of other cities, such as Semarang, Surabaya and Bandung. In these cities, they utilize the Farmers Market network (part of Ranch Market) for Bliblimart operations.