Monotaro's Strategy in Working on B2B Commerce

Player echo E-commerce B2B it's not as fast as B2C because of the different ways of marketing and various other strategies. However, the business potential that can be worked on from the B2B realm is enormous. One of the players E-commerce who play in this realm is monotaro, hailing from Japan.

Actually, Monotaro enter Indonesia by taking a majority stake in Sukamart (PT Sumisho E-Commerce Indonesia) about three years ago. From this action, they changed the legal entity and Branding just became Monotaro. Sukamart itself has been operating since 2012, is a subsidiary of the Sumitomo Group.

Since then, the company claims there has been a significant increase in overall business. To DailySocial, President Director of Monotaro.id Daisuke Maeda explained that the product categories on the site are now increasingly diverse, from around 10 thousand product items in 2016 to more than 800 thousand products.

All of these products come from partnerships with more than 3 thousand brand spread over 12 categories of goods. Starting from MRO (maintenance, repair, and operation) for manufacturing and assembly, safety equipment, hand and electrical tools, laboratory equipment, construction, automotive, logistics, to stationery.

The company also provides more than 20 thousand products from private-label from Japan which is considered quite unique and has good quality for Indonesian consumers.

Daisuke explained, Monotaro's position compared to B2B players trade others are quite different. They position themselves as online retailer, which has various products from various suppliers that have been curated.

"All of these product and category selections come from the data we have collected since the Sukamart era and from the preferences and habits of our consumers. We have thousands of new consumers every month, they are satisfied with the Monotaro platform and become loyal customers," he explained.

Although he did not elaborate, he claimed that Monotaro's business grew 300% per year, as well as monthly. This growth is predicted to grow even bigger, given the potential for B2B business trade in Indonesia which has not been fully exploited.

This condition, according to him, is similar to what happened in Japan 10 years ago and the same as what happened E-commerce B2C several years ago in Indonesia.

"We believe we are still in the very early stages in Indonesia. But we are very confident E-commerce B2B will booming in the near future follow the trend of technology adoption in Indonesia."

The majority of Monotaro's consumers come from manufacturing and assembly industries. Others are construction, plantation, automotive, mining, property, finance, education and small industries from all over Indonesia.

Technology development plan

Daisuke continued, the company plans to develop several new initiatives on the technology side to stay ahead. Among them are the intelligent search features that must always be developed.

The reason is, this feature is important in recording customer behavior and preferences that have been recorded on Monotaro Japan. As a result, the company can provide recommendations for the right goods.

"Our focus is on providing customers with the most convenient platform for making purchases that support their industrial and business operations. Therefore, the key is to make products searchable as quickly as possible.seamless pattern possible."

Another technology prepared is the optimization of order management by artificial intelligence (AI). For example, for which area, what method is appropriate, and when the customer must send the goods. Lastly the development of smart warehouses for faster delivery, but also cost-efficient.

"Our mission is to provide the most convenient and efficient purchasing platform for business consumers and our vision is to innovate the procurement network for all types of business users in Indonesia," he concluded.

As a company, Daisuke emphasized that Monotaro is fully funded by existing shareholders, and is supported by available technology and supply chain networks.