The Role of Technology to Improve the User Experience of Mutual Fund Investment Applications

Investment trends in the digital world are driven by the implementation of appropriate technology by each platform. Stocks, mutual funds, and gold are 3 popular choices. Good financial literacy and mastery of technology is a combination that can break down the first fortress of a person's reluctance to invest.

I spoke to several people to hear about their experiences investing through apps. Marsya, who is a technology journalist in her daily life, has been actively investing in mutual funds since 2016, especially since the ease of investing in mutual funds through online platforms.

"Use Bareksa and Bukareksa. The features are actually similar because you already understand what mutual funds are, so the most important thing is that there is a price movement chart with easy payments. Also because of the ease of payment. This technology is very convenient, it can encourage people to start investing." Marsya explained.

The same thing was conveyed by Nia Wibiyana. Knowing the mutual funds from the capital market school that he attended in 2018, he decided to use several applications at once to invest. The reason is that each platform has its own advantages, although according to him, ease of payment or purchase is the key.

"Most helpful feature huh payment via digital wallet. Buying mutual funds through the application is currently super easy and very convenient," he said.

Arjun, our other resource person, has been buying mutual fund products since 2012. According to him, investing using digital platforms is very comfortable with the ease of buying, selling, and switching instruments anytime and anywhere. The presence of portfolio features and robo-advisor very helpful when needing a recommendation.

Focus on Users

The development of the financial technology industry in Indonesia makes the investment platform industry also grow. This is marked by the increasing number of players and the innovations presented in the last few years. Nonetheless, the focus of some players is still on educating users and markets about investing.

In Indonesia, fusion mutual fund investment and technology has given birth to many investment services through applications. Innovation continues to be made, especially regarding integration with digital wallets. Not only through special applications, mutual fund purchases can also be made through marketplaces such as Tokopedia and Bukalapak.

Bibit, which is under the auspices of PT Bibit Grow Bersama, strives to focus on innovation that favors users, especially novice investors. This can be seen from their innovation in the form of Robo Advisor, a technology that can help users design optimal investment portfolios based on age, risk profile, and life goals automatically. There are also features such as Auto Financial, Auto Risk Profiling, Auto Rebalancing, and several others.

"Seeds using proven academic research. Seeds do not create new theories. Bibit uses technology to open access to academic research that is most often used by professionals for all people in Indonesia so that everyone can invest in the right way. Without having to spend a large amount of capital to attend seminars or use services financial adviser, "explained the Co-Founder of Seed Wellson Lo some time ago.

The Robo Advisor feature is a tangible manifestation of Bibit's efforts to make it easier for novice investors to understand and engage as mutual fund investors.

Halofina also made investments using technological innovations. This application, which introduces itself as a financial and investment planning platform as of March 2019, also serves the purchase of mutual funds.

Party Halofina explained, currently they have three main features in their efforts to help users, such as a Life Plan to help build financial planning and investment strategies, investment strategy recommendations that are claimed to be based on artificial intelligence, and the Halofina Dashboard which is used to monitor performance.

Halofina is also developing a Smart Cash Flow Tracker which is designed to help do monitoring financial expenses and income and Finaconsult which is prepared as an online consulting feature that connects users with financial consultants through the Halofina platform.

"We built these two features to be a solution to the difficulty of getting Advisory from financial experts at a low price, so we present these two features to provide experience consultation with certified financial experts at affordable prices and monitoring of financial expenses and income," explained a Halofina spokesperson.

Meanwhile, Ajaib, under the umbrella of PT Takjub Teknologi Indonesia, has a different way although its focus remains on helping novice investors, namely through the presence of financial adviser.

"We believe that an individual's financial condition is unique and sometimes it is not enough to solve it by mathematical formulas. Therefore, through financial adviser, Magic Investor can consult. It's not only a matter of choosing investment products, but also about solving the financial problems they face to financial planning," explained Brand Communications Manager Ajaib Victoria Christa.

Wonderful also presents several other menus to encourage beginner investors, such as Special Themed Investments which are designed to help beginners choose the types of mutual funds. There is also an Expert Guided Investing feature. For this feature, Ajaib collaborated with financial planner Ryan Filbert to help novice investor questions, such as when to invest and how much.