Add "Cold Storage" Service, Crewdible Aims To Be The Largest Micro Warehouse Network Provider

Micro-warehousing network provider startup Crewdible announces business expansion to refrigerated warehouses (coldstorage) to serve frozen food businesses (frozen food) requires special cooling facilities. This initiative is a step by the company to anticipate the soaring consumption of frozen food since the pandemic.

Corporate Marketing Manager Crewdible Gunawan Lee explained, coldstorage have special facilities such as chest freezers, chillers, to cold storage room. This requirement is prepared for a variety of products, especially those that perish quickly (perishable) need certain temperature conditions in order to maintain its freshness.

"This achievement is part of our efforts to provide convenience for business actors" frozen food who need special storage facilities to help develop their business,” said Gunawan to DailySocial.

The reason for his entry into this segment was triggered by changes in people's consumption habits. The limited space and choices in buying food make people look for alternatives, one of which is considering frozen food options.

On the other hand, frozen food processing technology has also improved in terms of food quality and safety. Users of frozen food services are also expanding, such as hospitals, hotels, airlines, to the military.

Even so, he continued, from the business side, there are several challenges when considering the use of microcold storage. Among them are looking for the availability of a location that suits your needs, the amount of facility management costs that must be prepared, as well as needs manpower and investment in cooling facilities that can reach hundreds of millions of Rupiah.

"Use microcold storage through the Crewdible application, they were able to address the various obstacles faced. With a network of partners, business people will not only get references to strategic warehouse locations, but also have the opportunity to open potential new distribution areas to develop their business networks.”

He continued, there are a number of conditions for partners coldstorage who want to join. You can start from a house with a special room measuring 50 square meters. As for the needs of B2C or seller from E-commerce, the shophouse/office shop is prioritized as a warehouse partner because of the larger capacity.

“We also prioritize partners who are located in strategic places, such as in the city center, or partners who have been handle effort frozen food, both those who have sold or have been stockists. Lastly, prioritize partners who already have facilities microcold storage, like chest freezers and Chilling. "

"However, we will also continue to help provide facilities for warehouse partners who plan to become coldstorage, but do not yet have the necessary equipment," he continued.

Gunawan targets that by the end of this year the total number of refrigeration warehouse partners will reach 200 units throughout Indonesia. They are also preparing a distribution ecosystem of partner users coldstorage Crewdible agar supply flow (supply chain leaders) become more effective and efficient.

In addition, the company will help partner users coldstorage Crewdible to market its products through e-commerce channels like site marketplace, social media commerce, as well as other channels.

Although Crewdible only acts as a microwarehouse network provider, the procurement process (fulfillment) is fully carried out by the building partners. However, Gunawan admitted that there are five warehouses operated directly by the Crewdible team in Jabodetabek.

The mechanism for using Crewdible is completely through the application and and registering as seller. Seller can look for warehouse references and directly send their products to be stored there. The application can also be used to monitor warehousing activities, including the type of product and the amount of stock stored.

If there is an order, seller simply enter the order into order management system (OMS) Crewdible to prepare for process fulfillment by the warehouse. The Crewdible team will pack the product to be picked up by the logistics team, according to the buyer's order.

It is said that the number of Crewdible warehouse users has exceeded 16 business people since the company first started operating. The majority of seller it sells its products through the platform E-commerce by category fashion, home appliances (home living), and food.

The total number of warehouse partners is more than 100 warehouses spread throughout Indonesia. The company has also separated the use of warehouses based on the category of halal and non-halal products not in the same facility.

Competition with Branch Stores

Gunawan admitted that the concept fulfillment what Crewdible applies is similar to what Tokopedia applies to Branch Store. However, he emphasized that there were a number of differences, among which the company adopted the concept of decentralization, either microstorage nor non-micro storage. Then, don't charge a storage fee (storage fees) to the user from the start.

“Crewdible can change fixed costs always a burden seller menjadi variable cost based commission. For anyone who is interested in trying our service, we can be sure that we are not burdening you seller with storage fees at the beginning."

Another differentiator, Crewdible is multi-channel which can remove the boundaries betweenmarketplace. Alias, users can take advantage of the warehouse for all their business on various platforms.

“We will remain open with marketplace others who wish to use the facilities and infrastructure of Crewdible.”

Although not willing to go into details, Gunawan revealed that his party is in the process of exploring cooperation to become a official fulfillment center for one of the biggest marketplace players in Indonesia.