Research: Tokopedia Becomes the Most Used Platform for Selling Online

The growth in the number of Indonesian e-commerce users grew significantly during 2020. According to the report DailySocial.id, the number of e-commerce users increased by more than 10 million -- from 75 million to 85 million -- during the pandemic. These new e-commerce users make the most purchases in the categories of health care, fast food or frozen food, to electronics.

Profits were also obtained from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) who began to switch online during the pandemic in 2020. The government reported that 2,7 million business actors had digitized their businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, the number of MSMEs that penetrate the digital ecosystem has almost reached 11 million, with a total of around 16% compared to the total MSME actors in Indonesia.

Based on the results of the DailySocial.id FGD research, MSME players admit that the e-commerce platform really helps them to sell their products more broadly. In addition to no longer having to think about the cost of renting a place, they are also facilitated by the various sales strategies offered by each platform. 

For example, Tokopedia offers membership statuses such as Power Merchant, where sellers can use various exclusive features to help increase sales and customer trust. Through this membership status, sellers can get special access to various exclusive features such as free shipping, shop vouchers, broadcast messages, etc. From the results of DailySocial.id's research, Tokopedia ranks as the most frequently used e-commerce medium for selling online. 

Seeing this great opportunity, the competition for innovation among e-commerce players is getting tougher. The actors offer various features that make it easier for consumers to carry out shopping activities to fulfill daily needs through e-commerce platforms. Several innovations are currently loved by e-commerce players such as investment products for future savings, digital products to pay bills, and personal loans. Through these innovations, Indonesian e-commerce is growing and pampering consumers to continue using their platform.

For example, BukaReksa, Bukalapak allows its users to buy and sell mutual fund products according to the user's financial needs and capabilities such as Money Market Mutual Funds, Fixed Income Mutual Funds, etc. Shopee also offers similar products through gold investment, as well as digital bill payment features for credit, electricity, BPJS, and transportation tickets.

Various strategies have also been carried out by e-commerce platforms to maximize the potential of this industry. For example, Shopee and Lazada provide games and live streaming features on their respective platforms. Both Shopee and Lazada also focus on 'beautiful dates' promos such as 9.9, 10.10, following the 11.11 promotion introduced by Alibaba. This strategy is used as a form of promotion to increase engagement users, while encouraging product purchases. Meanwhile, Tokopedia attracts customers through the Indonesian Shopping Time (WIB) program, which offers special promotions to its users at the end of every month on payday.

These various approaches become the strategy of each e-commerce player to attract more and more users to their platform. According to SimilarWeb data in the first quarter of 2021, Tokopedia is the most accessed marketplace platform on the internet. Tokopedia is recorded to have a monthly number of visits reaching 126,4 million and monthly unique visitors reaching 38,93 million. Shopee followed in second place with 117 million monthly visits and 35,74 million unique visitors during the first quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, Bukalapak, Lazada and Blibli respectively filled the top 5 e-commerce platforms in Indonesia.