Successful Pandemic Drives the "Online Grocery" Industry

Behind the tragic story that hit various industrial sectors, there is a positive side that is also felt by service providers online. One of them is a business person online grocery. In the midst of concerns out there due to the pandemic, there are basic needs that must still be met. This encourages people to prefer shopping for daily necessities online courses rather than risk leaving the house.

With the increasing number of requests, other sectors also see this as an opportunity. One of the e-commerce players who pay more attention to basic needs services is Lazada. In collaboration with Rumah Sayur, they have succeeded in helping more than 2500 local farmers distribute their crops.

Bobby Gandakusuma, EVP Commercial Lazada Indonesia, said, "We see changes in consumer shopping patterns starting to change from before Covid-19. physical distancing This further accelerates consumer demand for online grocery shopping initiatives."

There are also Sub-advertising, known as mobile ad solutions, trying to try their luck in the industry online groceries with UbiFresh. In the property sector, Travelio is now also appearing with TravelioMart as a complementary services from core business they.

Business diversification

Everyone has their own way of responding to changes that occur. Likewise in business in times of crisis. The ability to innovate is needed in order to be able to produce business ideas that are in accordance with current conditions. In addition, it is also an effort to create new markets that can later be integrated with the company's core business.

Currently, changes are occurring in the shopping patterns of most Indonesians who prefer the shopping route online. Travelio is trying to take advantage of this momentum by launching e-groceries services as a form of business diversification as well as added value for users in order to increase stickiness app, which will then have an impact on additional sources of income.

Although positioned as a complementary service to their core business (Travelio Property Management), his party expressed a positive market response to this new service. In view of service short term stays who supports revenue the company is experiencing a downturn, diversification of this business is a hope.

On the other hand, the decrease in turnover in traditional markets encourages Ub Advertise to look for alternatives to help the welfare of the traditional market ecosystem. Bridging market buyers and traders using their newest service, Ubifresh.

Founder & CEO of Ub Advertising Glorio Yulianto said, "From Ub Advertisement itself, we always try to help improve the welfare of the community in our innovations. UbiFresh is a bridge between buyers and market traders, where we can also help these market traders. So, UbiFresh itself is actually very suitable for value that we have planted since the beginning. In addition, we actually already have a plan where UbiFresh will be able to support Ub Advertising's business in advertising."

Challenges and Competition

Change will always be followed by new challenges. As part of the ecosystem online groceries, maintaining product quality will always be the main concern. However, just like an ecosystem that has an inseparable reciprocal relationship, good business collaboration will also determine the success of an innovation.

Industry online groceries in Indonesia is not new. There have been several previous players, such as HappyFresh, Vegetablebox, and much more. This poses a new challenge to innovate and add value to the products offered by these new players. UbiFresh complements its products with several features that can provide experience direct shopping in the market for its users.

"UbiFresh will continue to be developed in terms of market choice, service, price, product quality, speed and accuracy of delivery. In addition, we have also started making preparations for expansion to the Bodetabek area. Although UbiFresh was born in the midst of the corona pandemic, but [this business ] was created to be a long term line of business [sustainable]," continued Glorio.

Regarding competition, all businesses online groceries focuses on monetization on the margin of each transaction obtained. The presence of new players who increasingly enliven the competition will automatically present a price war that is also getting tougher. A challenge for TravelioMart to maintain a balance between affordability & quality.

"By a very small margin, because of the desire to keep affordability & quality—so we only have allowances very small to do refund (if there is damage in the delivery stage). Then the fault tolerance / margin of error we are very low," said one Travelio representative.

In the end, it is not a matter of whether the old or new business wins, but rather the success of innovation to reach the wider community.