aCommerce to make Indonesia its centre, begins expansion

• Indonesia is group’s main focus, already employs more than 500 staff
• Will build more warehouses and local hubs by end of the year

 
BANGKOK-based e-commerce solutions provider aCommerce intends to make Indonesia its biggest operations centre, and has begun its expansion in the republic.
 
Its group chief executive officer Paul Srivorakul recently told the audience at the Last Mile Fulfilment Asia event in Singapore that “Indonesia is where we are focusing a lot of our resources.”
 
“The changes in the Indonesian market are happening much faster when compared to other regions in South-East Asia,” he said, according to the aCommerce company blog.
 
“A lot of investment is taking place in Indonesia’s e-commerce infrastructure, cash-on-delivery networks, and third-party logistics (3PL) systems, amongst others, which are important for the market to scale,” he said.
 
READ ALSO: Logistics and payments holding back SEA e-commerce boom: Bain report
 
aCommerce is now present in four countries in South-East Asia: Its home market of Thailand, as well as Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. It has a total of 200 clients in these markets, out of which 120 hail from Indonesia.
 
Major clients in the country include MatahariMall, Elevenia, Blibli.com, BerryBenka, Mitra Adi Perkasa, and L’Oreal.
 
Founded in Bangkok three years ago, aCommerce secured US$10.7-million Series A funding led by Inspire Venture in 2014, and another US$5 million in an internal round in 2015.
 
Last August, the company said it had around 360 employees in Indonesia, but it has since expanded its workforce to 500, according to aCommerce Indonesia chief executive Hadi Kuncoro.
 
“We are expanding our head-office in the country to be able to accommodate 200 more employees. Our new office will be ready in the next three weeks,” he told Digital News Asia (DNA) via email.
 
Beyond Jakarta
 

 
aCommerce has also opened two new small hubs outside the capital city of Jakarta, in Bandung, West Java and the regency of Sidoarjo, East Java. Each currently has a 150 sq metre capacity, expandable to 1,500 sq metres.
 
Hadi (pic above) declined to say how much the company invested in the new hubs.
 
aCommerce Indonesia already operates two multi-client fulfilment centres, and one 5,000 sq metre fulfilment centre dedicated to Lippo Group’s e-commerce arm, MatahariMall.
 
The multi-client facilities are located in Jakarta and Bekasi, with a total capacity of up to 10,000 sq metres.
 
The two new hubs currently serve as cross-docking or in-transit distribution hubs, but will eventually be extended to fulfilment centres if needed.
 
“We can easily convert the two new hubs to become fulfilment centres within one or two months depending on client requirements and the business,” said Hadi.
 
The two locations were chosen because of the potential aCommerce sees in the two cities.
 
“We can now serve brand owners and producers in Bandung and Surabaya with our first-mile pickup and fulfilment service directly in the city, which will be more efficient,” Hadi said, adding this would also boost client acquisition.
 
The hubs in Bandung and Surabaya will also give the company the opportunity to offer its other services, such as digital marketing, technology development, and its recently-launched channel management.
 
“With the presence of hubs in Bandung and Surabaya, we will be able to fully control the cash on delivery (COD) process,” said aCommerce Indonesia head of transportation and distribution Ebenezer Bonatua.
 
“This includes increasing lead time delivery and service reliability, and speeding up the process of COD reconciliation or settlement from the typical two weeks to less than five working days,” he said in an official statement.
 
The company is also preparing to launch a four-level fulfilment centre in the next two months, which will increase the country’s warehouse capacity by 17,000 sq metres, bringing the total to 32,000 sq metres.
 
aCommerce said it intends to build more hubs in the second-tier cities such as Medan, Makassar, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Tangerang, Manado, Denpasar, Lampung and Palembang.
 
“We will gradually expand to these cities starting in the second quarter of this year, and we are hoping that we can finish the local expansion by the end of the year,” said Hadi.
 
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