How TokoBranch Changed Tokopedia's Business Model Landscape

It's been more than a year TokoBranch, order fulfillment service (fulfillment service) from Tokopedia, introduced to the public. This is part of Tokopedia's ambition to become a IaaS platform (infrastructure-as-a-service).

TokoBranch is starting to blur the landscape of Tokopedia's core business model which was originally marketplace pure C2C, to semi B2C.

Branch Store operated by a partner appointed by Tokopedia, namely PT Bintang Digital Internasional under the name brandHaistar. They are company e-logistics which was established in 2018. Other appointed partners are Titipaja, the newest business unit of logistics services last mileAntheraja.

Haistar has warehouses spread across Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya. They were also selected as Pos Indonesia partners for "Haipos" in order to optimize the company's assets in Medan, Palembang and Makassar.

According to information seller kit branch store, merchant Tokopedia with a minimum reputation of Gold 1 or Official Store can take advantage of partner warehouses to deposit their goods so that they reach consumers faster.

The warehouse locations that merchants can use so far are Haistar Gading, Haistar Kamal, Haistar Bandung, Haistar Surabaya, and Haistar Makassar. Meanwhile, Titipaja is only available in Cililitan, Jakarta, because the service new operating at the beginning of this year. However, the company plans to expand to Bandung, Medan, Denpasar and Pontianak.

Branch Store using the semi B2C concept because the warehouse partners in this case Haistar and Titipaja will receive the fees paid merchant and calculated based on monthly volume. For example, for a volume of more than 1000 units a fee is charged fulfillment IDR 2.400 per unit for each item sold and storage costs IDR 2.000 per unit per month.

These costs are calculated to be more efficient than merchant have to open a branch and open their own warehouse because they have to pay attention to labor costs, packaging costs, and warehouse loads. This is the solution win-win created by Tokopedia for all stakeholder.

The pandemic makes mobility very limited, including in meeting daily needs. As a result, shopping patterns tend to shift from offline to online. The number of online sellers has also increased.

According to the company's internal records, there was an addition of one million new sellers to 8,3 million sellers in May 2020 within three months.

game changer for the world E-commerce

Tokopedia's solution can be said to be different from what the platform offers E-commerce Other B2C, for example Blibli, Lazada, and JD.id.

All B2C players multiply physical assets, in the form of warehouses, to store items that are sold. Having warehouses spread over several points in each city means shorter shipping distances. The delivery time will be much shorter and the shipping costs paid by consumers will be cheaper.

At the beginning of this year, Blibli plans to add warehouses to 21 units, as well as hub and mobile hubs, to 43 units for speedy delivery. JD.id currently has 11 warehouses spread across Medan, Jakarta, Semarang, Pontianak, Surabaya, and Makassar. Whereas Lazada has 12 warehouses and 75 hubs. The largest warehouses are in Cilodong, Makassar, Surabaya and Balikpapan.

Tokopedia itself this month will increase the presence of TokoBranch in Makassar, Medan, and Palembang. In an official statement, since it was launched in Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya, sellers who take advantage of this do not need to consider operational issues -- both when receiving orders, packing, to delivering to couriers, especially when facing a surge in demand.

Tokopedia's Head of Fulfillment Erwin Dwi Saputra explained, during the pandemic there was a significant spike in the number of orders handled by Tokocabang, up to 2,5 times in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of this year.

One of TokoBang's users is Big Bad Wolf who held an online book bazaar on 27 May-3 May and 24-30 June. Hundreds of thousands of books are sold, packaged, and distributed to various regions more quickly through TokoBranch.

Consumers who choose services through Tokopedia can use the "Tokopedia Service" filter on the search page.