RateS Temporarily Closes All Warehousing Access

Platform social commerce membership based RateS is pursuing the path of business efficiency. This can be seen from the company's latest upload on its social media page regarding the temporary closure of all RateS warehouses as of February 28, 2023.

It was stated, RateS will continue to process incoming orders before 28 February 2023 at 23.59 WIB. As of 2022, RateS is recorded as having six storage warehouses spread across various regions of Indonesia.

Tim DailySocial.id had contacted RateS Co-Founder and COO Albert Ho regarding this matter. He admitted that the move was part of efficiency. "We decided to stop order from the warehouse," he said.

He also added that this closure was temporary. "We don't plan to pivot. Currently, we are focusing on sectors that generate more margins, such as orders marketplace and others."

RateS was founded in 2016 with the original mission of helping transactions E-commerce cross-country more efficient and accessible. As the industry develops, RateS aplikasi app allows anyone to sell (be reseller) without having to buy stock first.

Users can create a stall online contains various products according to the RateS catalog, then promotes them through channels online and offline which is owned. As a partner, reseller will get a special purchase price and selling price to consumers so that they get a profit.

This startup, who graduated from the PayPal Incubator program in Singapore, has also conducted fundraising several times. In early 2022, the company announced a fresh funding of $6 million in equity and debt.

In the last news, Albert revealed The investment is planned to be continued with a series B fundraising which is targeted to be completed this year. The company is also interested in exploring financing products following the joining of Kasikorn Bank in the ranks of investors.

Regarding its business in Indonesia, RateS claims to have experienced rapid growth in 2021, with a 4x increase since 2020. According to the latest data, the company has empowered more than 500 thousand reseller throughout Indonesia and made a profit of more than IDR 30 billion through approximately 1 million orders on the application.

Challenges in Indonesia

In 2022, DSResearch releases report which discusses ecosystem development social commerce in Indonesia. Over the past decade E-commerce has succeeded in becoming an industrial locomotive that drives a variety of digital innovations in various sectors. However, there are still gap unresolved issues, particularly regarding equal distribution of service coverage.

Gap This is based on various factors, for example related to the distribution of services in the city tier 3 or 4. Until the digital literacy of the rural community has not been maximized. Apart from that, the challenge they are still facing is how they can convince the producers and principal to be able to jointly provide services to the cities tier 2 and 3. Whereas, cities tier 2 and 3 are currently said to be experiencing rapid progress.

Based on the Alpha JWC Ventures report with Kearney regarding Indonesia's non-metropolitan digital growth potential, the digital economy in the area tier 2 and 3 are projected to grow fivefold in the next five years. This was reinforced by a number of factors, including macroeconomic growth, adoption of digital services, to the government's efforts to encourage a digital startup ecosystem in the city tier 2 and 3.

Meanwhile, according to projections from McKinsey, the value of GMV that will be generated by the industry E-commerce in Indonesia will reach $65 billion by 2022. Social commerce alone can contribute up to $25 billion to the achievement.

In Indonesia, there are already several services social commerce in operation, including Evermos, Trade or Woobiz which emphasizes the aspect of women's empowerment in the regions. Ecosystem wise, player social commerce local also keep coming with a unique approach. However, one thing that is the main mission of all platforms is to target users in small cities.