Ghufron Mustaqim's determination to increase retail spending in the regions through Evermos

Ghufron Mustaqim's introduction to Lingga Madu, who started Salestock at the end of 2014, succeeded in 'plunging' him further into the startup world. Interested in E-commerce and the various challenges therein, Ghufron and three friends (Arip Tirta, Iqbal Muslimin, and Ilham Taufiq) pioneered Evermos (Everyday Need for Every Moslem) in 2018.

Evermos is the first startup he has led as CEO since 2020, replacing Iqbal Muslimin. He was challenged to pursue a career as an entrepreneur because the process of ups and downs was 'exciting'. Making a product that is valuable and beneficial for the lives of many people is the peak of the pleasure he feels.

“Even though traveling as entrepreneur it's not easy, there are lots of challenges, but if we listen feedback positive from user like the peak [of happiness]. I choose path "This is because it's fun," he said when contacted DailySocial.id.

During his direct involvement in this world, according to him, there are two important aspects that entrepreneurs must have. First, create a high-value product. Users can immediately feel that their problems can be resolved completely and efficiently, after using the product created by the team.

"We don't make products because [we have expertise] technical skills certain, more than that. You have to understand the problem market, who the potential target users are, what their jobs are, and what solutions are needed so that the users' jobs are completed quickly."

Second, build business value in a sustainable manner. This is no less important, but often a lot founder who realized later. Lots founder who knows how to generate revenue and monetization from their products. But not many people understand that it is no less necessary to have it economic units which makes sense and is able to make a product last a long time.

“This is something common sense, but it's not widely practiced. Founder must understand the structure of a product, then break down every detail, until they are sure they can stay deliver value with economic units that makes sense and will long lasting. "

His passion embraces the world E-commerce actually started from Ghufron's personal experience in his hometown in Sleman, Yogyakarta, where there are more rice fields than people. There they are smart and hardworking, but because their education is limited, alternatives to be more productive in generating income than usual are also limited.

On the other hand, there are many MSME brands whose business scale is not growing rapidly. The main reason is because its market penetration ability is not good, which is influenced by the lack of capital allocation to market it. “You have to build distributors, collaborate with shops, create inventory in many places, so the capital will be large. Many local brands are finally there just like that. "

“What we help with is brand can expand with the supply of agent networks reseller who joined Evermos. We accompany and train them to become so microentrepreneur successful."

Regional economy

As is known, industry E-commerce has had a major impact and attracted attention in the last decade. However, the industry remains a relatively small part of the Indonesian economy.

Quoting from the "Beyond the Digital Frontier" report released by Evermos, seen from the "Indonesian Digital Literacy Survey", carried out together with the Katadata Insight Center (KIC) and the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo), and data from the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII) , Evermos estimates that 49,6% of Indonesia's population is e-commerce non-users in 2022.

“If Occasional Users (those who use E-commerce once every few months) is calculated, so as many as 66,6% of the Indonesian population are actually users E-commerce inactive," wrote the report.

Further, the report delivers for every single user E-commerce active, there are two people who haven't used it yet E-commerce actively. This disparity is more striking in cities tier lower. In Java, it is predicted that 58,9% of the population are users E-commerce off, while in cities tier 2 and 3 numbers are higher, namely 61,1%.

Not only is internet penetration lower in tier 2 and 3 cities, there is also a gap in the level of familiarity with e-commerce, application availability E-commerce di smartphone and frequency of use e-commerce. As a result, the number of inactive users increases along with the decline tier city.

“This estimate is in line with other KIC studies which reveal that Most sales E-commerce come from cities tier 1 (56,8% in 2022), despite the city's population tier 1 only 11,5% of Indonesia's total population.”

Evermos publishes this report to bust two myths: (a) channels online which has dominated the market and made the channel offline no longer relevant as well; (b) consumer shopping behavior and strong bias towards shopping online.

"Growth E-commerce This is fast but not enough for majority consumers in Indonesia. Brand who is focused online just will missing out [This opportunity]. Our goal is to help brand for capture 80%-90% of consumers in lower tier cities," added Ghufron.

The company empowers local brands to reach potential consumer demand in small towns through networking reseller Evermos and help improve businesses sustainably by leveraging the platform. Through this partnership, reseller

will have access to products that offer more benefits to consumers, such as discount prices that are only available at Evermos.

With more than 17.000 islands spread over 5.100 km from west to east, the unique geography of the Indonesian market makes national expansion expensive and time-consuming, especially in small cities.

Since its founding, Evermos has been committed to reducing these logistical challenges to ensure equality for all Indonesians, regardless of geographic location, income level or gender. Including, building direct relationships with brand local to be better known to consumers and offer comprehensive solutions for needs trade every brand local.

By joining the Evermos ecosystem, local business actors can reach 500 cities of which 165.000 reseller operates without large capital.

“We want MSME brands to be able to do that scale up from a marketing perspective better. This long term journey, is not something that is easy to achieve therefore it requires commitment from all parties."

He also understands this condition. On the one hand, the entrepreneurial spirit reseller still up and down because mindsetthose who are not yet able to withstand the risk of failure before reaching the point of success. Even from the brand owner's side, they themselves have not thought about efficient and operational standards scalable. “There are also those whose stock often runs out because they don't have any record stock the good one."

Aware of these challenges, the company has prepared a fully dedicated team to assist reseller and brand. It said his team had spent thousands of hours per month on its mentoring program.

From the progress seen so far, there is brand Those who previously started from zero can now be helped, their turnover has increased quite a bit. There are also reseller which developed from order in large quantities, finally you can have it brand Alone. “Milestone Micro entrepreneurs start from reseller. When you are sure that the business scale is large, then become a stockist, until finally you make it brand Alone. That's something we can help with.”

Company performance

According to him, many people think that Evermos is like most startups that burn money diligently, considering that they are also a startup. This assumption was immediately refuted. The various data he quoted stated that this was the fact economic units in the growing area is much higher than the main city. Many people don't realize this.

The reason is none other than because the majority of retail transactions in the regions still occur online offline. The more remote you are, the higher the transactions offline-his. It is claimed that during the pandemic, Evermos recorded 17 times growth top line. From the side Bottom line is also said to be getting closer to profit. Based on the latest data revealed by the company, GMV growth will reach 17 times from 2020 to 2022.

Ghufron said that from the start the company had always established its principles to maintain sustainable growth. So comparisons between months and years must always be kept in check top line-his. At the same time, we must also ensure that the impact is always channeled.

“We are Libra antara growth and profit, so it's a bit flexible depending timingWell, it doesn't have to be now. Whether it takes a long time or not, we will achieve it profit, it's deep setting"Our problem is not because this business model is not successful," he concluded.

Total reseller Evermos is said to currently reach 165 thousand people, around 70% of whom are housewives. The most sold product categories at Evermos are household furniture, beauty, herbal medicine, and so on.