Telkom, eBay’s e-commerce arm Blanja.com moves to claim e-commerce throne

• Brainchild of Telkom and eBay’s strategic partnership in 2012
• Aims to increase transaction value by 50% by the end of year

TWO years after its launch as an e-commerce player, Indonesia’s Blanja.com, a joint-venture between the e-commerce arm of Telkom Group and eBay, has declared that it is now ready to join the race.

The company has just revamped its look with a new logo, colour scheme, and website to mark the beginning of the second phase of its journey towards being considered a serious player and a strong contender in the market.

Speaking to Digital News Asia (DNA) in Jakarta recently, Blanja.com chief executive officer (CEO) Aulia E. Marinto (pic) says that it is not a late move from the company, as the team needed to ensure that the platform is fundamentally ready for a big launch rather than being a big talker.

“This is a long-term game. There is no need for us to be in a rush, to force ourselves to be ready when we knew we were not,” he says.

Aulia who is also the chairman of Indonesian E-Commerce Association (idEA) explains that e-commerce is not about getting traffic, but building trust. And this is what the company is focusing on this year; to re-introduce Blanja.com into the market as the brainchild of Telkom Group and eBay as well as ensure the quality of goods.

In doing so, the company will now enter the television advertisement game to reach widest audience possible as well as enhance digital marketing efforts.

Since its launch in December 2014, Blanja.com has been fairly quiet. According to Aulia, this is due to the company trying to find its tune as well as improve its internal technical and business fundamentals.

“Our goal is to walk the talk. What we promise to deliver, we deliver. There is no excuse. Our parent companies are two huge entities. One is from the infrastructure side, and one is a technology and industry leader, so our responsibility is to make sure Blanja.com is up to that level,” he adds.

Two years of building momentum

In the last two years, Aulia says that Blanja.com has built its strategic momentum. Including the appointment of the platform to be the official e-commerce platform for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by the Ministry of State Owned Enterprise.

As a result, Blanja.com has now become a marketplace for 118 SOE companies, as well as the SMB partners of these SOE companies to market their products, selling only authentic and unique Indonesian products.

The support from eBay strengthened by the end of 2015 when Blanja.com.com was granted more eBay products. Currently the platform has more than 500 million eBay products, and claims to be th marketplace platform with the largest amount of products.

Blanja.com had an average of 2,000 daily transactions in 2015. This doubled to an average of 5,000 daily transactions last year. With special events like Harbolnas (National Online Shopping Day), daily transactions can reach 10,000 to 15,000.

The site has seen nine million visitors since January this year and 30 million total visitors by the end of last year. The company has recorded US$100 million in transaction value last year, and is aiming to reach US$150 million by the end of this year.

In terms of categories, gadget and electronics is the leader for Blanja.com, followed by fashion and lifestyle. This is due to the initial strategy of wanting to differentiate itself from other e-commerce giants that are very strong in fashion and lifestyle products.

Next page: Slow and steady wins the race