B2C Grocery Online Business Still Needs Adjustments, Fresh Doing Efficiency

Online grocery startups are back in the limelight. After Vegetablebox made a layoff at the end of 2022 and a number of others are experiencing business difficulties, now Fresh reportedly has laid off 24% of its total employees. If you look at the company's LinkedIn page, there are a total of around 600 employees at Segari (meaning around 144 employees are affected).

Our source said this announcement was made at the same time town hall company on Wednesday (11/1). Affected employees have been promised compensation according to layoff regulations in Indonesia.

We have also tried to contact Segari Co-Founder & CEO Yosua Setiawan to ask about the reasons behind this action, but have yet to receive a response.

Focusing on fresh food ingredients such as fruit, vegetables and meat, Segari currently has a network of farmer partners in Java and Sumatra. In their business processes, they utilize a decentralized warehouse system to maintain product quality in the A+ grade category. Also, work with sales partners to send items within 15 hours of ordering.

Regarding funding, Segari has received support from a number of investors. Among them are Go-Ventures, SIG, Alfamart, Gunung Sewu Group, Intrinity Capital Beenext, AC Ventures, Saison Capital to public figures Maudy Ayunda as one of the angel investors.

In the release we received last year, Segari even claimed that in the past year it has continued to experience positive business growth, increasing more than 20 times in terms of number of subscribers and revenue.

In a survey conducted by Populix at the end of 2022 it was also noted that Segari was included in the category quick commerce mostly used by respondents, namely around 16%.

However, the business climate online groceries in general, it is experiencing a decline, especially in the B2C realm. Growth extraordinary during a pandemic cannot be a trend that continues to be maintained, along with changes in the way people shop for basic needs.

A number of startups have finally changed their business models to also strengthen their B2B lines. This is done by players like Tanihub, Titipku, and several others.

Happen online groceries immature

Throughout 2022, DailySocial.id noted a number of players who offer online groceries and quick commerce forced to give up and had to stop operations. Some of them are Brambang which has now turned into an online marketplace for electronics. It is known that the Traveloka Mart service has closed its service, which has only been operating for six months. Until Bananas, which has been operating since January 2022, has ceased operations after selling its remaining supply of products at a significant discount.

On the other hand, the service area of ​​the platforms has not yet expanded online groceries which is still limited to the Greater Jakarta area to tier 1 course. It makes it difficult for businesses to get a large number of users and only concentrated in a few areas.

During the pandemic, social restrictions became a special momentum for players online groceries in Indonesia. But at this time when the pandemic has started to decline and activities offline until WFO, which the company has begun to apply to its employees, begins to reduce online shopping activities.

Reporting from Cash, Chairman of the Indonesian E-Commerce Association (idEA), Bima Laga said, the market online groceries in Indonesia at this time spelled out not yet mature or mature because it was just formed during the pandemic.

"If there is a continuous subsidy on shipping costs or promo discounts, it will certainly be a burden for the startup company. From an investor standpoint, they are also more selective in choosing startups that are more oriented towards profitability," added Bhima.