It has been more than one year that the Indonesian people have implemented a social distancing movement to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 or Coronavirus. The government urges people to always wear masks, keep their distance, wash their hands diligently, reduce mobility and avoid crowds. Responding to the government’s appeal, many companies have implemented a work from home policy. Educational institutions also implement online learning schemes.
The increasing popularity of online grocery, especially shopping for household necessities online, which is driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of large-scale social restrictions. This phenomenon is predicted to boost growth of the e-commerce sector in Indonesia. A survey by management consulting firm Redseer in August 2020 found that more than half of Indonesian respondents said their spending on e-grocery platforms had increased during the pandemic. Then, as many as 60% respondents said they would continue buying shooping online in the future (thejakartapost. com).
In Indonesia, the penetration of online grocery is still dominant in Jakarta-Bogor-Depok-Tangerang-Bekasi (Jabodetabek) area. That makes the potential of online grocery is actually still very large. The Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) Asia stated that the value of the online grocery market will grow 198% from US$99 billion in 2019 to US$295 billion in 2023. Southeast Asia is projected to find the fastest growth, although in terms of value it is not as big as in Japan, South Korea and China. Markets in India and Indonesia will also be increasingly important for business people because of their scale (dailysocial.id).
In 2020, it seems that the online grocery business will see a high increase in users. The Covid-19 pandemic has made people start to take advantage of these services, because there have been calls for not traveling outside the home. Sure enough, there are currently a lot of product stocks on the online shooping platform. Delivery queue also piled up, so orders cannot be delivered on the same day. The important point is that there is an increasing awareness among Indonesian consumers.
But you can’t let your guard down, because e-commerce transaction for the wholesale category also starting to increase, such as Lazada’s strategy after the acquisition of RedMart. Other local companies have started to show the same signs. For example, Blibli has done through Blibli Mart, is presenting the O2O concept of selling daily necessities. JD.id has also done the same thing (id.techinasia.com).
Online grocery will have a bright future, amidst the increasingly digital habits of society, as well as better retail platforms consolidation. This is in the context of Jabodetabek area. Apart from that, there are still a lot of homework to be validated, because basically what startups offers is changing the culture of society, especially among housewives.