Giant Matahari Mall online planned

Indonesian industrial conglomerate Lippo Group is to invest US$500 million creating “the Alibaba of Indonesia”.

The Indonesian mall will bear the Matahari department store brand name, MatahariMall replicating and expanding the nation’s largest department store’s bricks and mortar offer online.

Lippo Group is one of Indonesia’s largest and diversified corporations, which owns Matahari hypermarkets, department stores and some 60 shopping centres. It says it will invest the internet funds into the Matahari Mall online over a two to three year period as it strives to create the nation’s largest eCommerce site, turning over US$1 billion annually.

Lippo Group representative John Riady described eCommerce in southeast Asia as “a US$100 billion opportunity”.

“We want to become ‘the Alibaba of Indonesia’,” he told a media briefing.

“Indonesia is the last remaining, large underpenetrated eCommerce market in Asia. MatahariMall is the single largest eCommerce opportunity today.

“Our vision is to build the most powerful ecosystem that brings together buyers and sellers to do business anytime and anywhere.”

Five years from now, Lippo wants to achieve US$25 billion in sales from its Matahari operations, 80 per cent of that from its bricks & mortar stores, 20 per cent online.

Tech In Asia reports that prior to Lippo’s announcement the largest single commitment to eCommerce in Indonesia was $100 million from SoftBank and Sequoia Capital into Tokopedia.

Lippo is effectively putting MatahariMall will into head-on competition with Rocket Internet’s Lazada, southeast Asia’s strongest online retailer.

MatahariMall will sell goods spanning the fashion, beauty, electronics, home, groceries, books and entertainment categories, and more. Customers will be able to purchase online and collect in a Matahari store.

Matahari Department Stores CEO Michael Remsen says Indonesian eCommerce will grow 10-fold over the next five years.

“Together with MatahariMall, we are committed to the future of ecommerce. All of our suppliers and partners are 100 per cent behind us,” he said.

The site will go live in March.