With it’s population of 250 million people, a growing middle class and an empirically proven love of embracing new technology, Indonesia has become a hot destination for e-commerce entrepreneurs. Ardent Capital has estimated the consumer e-commerce market in Indonesia is worth around $2.6 billion.
But while sites like Tokopedia and Lazada have made significant inroads, much of the potential businesses see in Indonesia’s e-commerce sector remain unrealized largely due to payment and delivery infrastructure limitations.
However that hasn’t stopped more major players from throwing their hats into the ring recently. Earlier this year, Lippo Group committed $500 million to their MatahariMall site, which aims to become the “Ali Baba of e-commerce in Indonesia.”
Others are taking a slightly more specialized approach. The newest e-commerce kid on the Indonesian block is Moxy, an online shopping site aimed squarely at women, with products ranging from beauty and makeup to baby products and gadgets. It also has a wide range of fashion products, including an extensive selection of Muslim fashions.
Moxy is the first site aimed squarely at “end-to-end” female commerce in Indonesia. And although the company behind the site, Whatsnew, is new to Indonesia, it has already found a great deal of success in Thailand’s relatively similar e-commerce market.
Similar, but still far from the same. Moxy and other e-commerce newcomers have numerous unique challenges to overcome if they want to capture a piece of the mythical Indonesian e-commerce market that is still in what is likely its nascent stage. But no matter what, the ultimate the winner is going to be Indonesian consumers, who have by-and-large not yet learned the joys of clicking a button and having a product magically appear at their door a short time later.
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