Fashion
The launch of a marketplace dedicated to Indonesian-made products on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s platform will open doors for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to break into the Chinese market.
Over the weekend, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong and a number of officials took part in officiating Inamall in China, which is currently accessible through Alibaba’s subsidiary marketplace Tmall Global. Prior to the announcement, Inamall had reportedly been active since last year.
Inamall will feature exclusively Indonesian-made products, with a particular emphasis on food and beverages. Some Indonesian brands that have entered this marketplace include coffee brands Kopi Luwak and Kapal Api, along with snack products ranging from Kusuka chips to Inaco Nata De Coco.
Through the partnership with Alibaba, Indonesia now has a direct access to a lucrative online market, which would allow Indonesian producers to sell their products directly to Chinese consumers without the hassle of distributors.
Indonesian ambassador to China and Mongolia Soegeng Rahardjo elaborated during the event that since Inamall’s soft launch last year it has been visited by up to 400 million Chinese users, thus highlighting the extensive interest in Indonesian products in the People’s Republic.
The interest, Soegeng noted, arose because members of the Chinese public had less faith in their local products because of safety issues, especially when it comes to food and beverage products. With this perception by Chinese people, Indonesian products will get a better foothold in their market.
“But the challenge now is how [Indonesian vendors] are able to maintain the quality of their goods, maintain their capacity and ensure the continuity of their production so that outside markets are able to consistently come back to an Indonesian product,” he said during the Inamall launch in Hangzhou last week, as reported by Antara.
Adding to that, the director of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) in China, Liky Sutikno, noted that Inamall would enable Chinese consumers to develop emotional connections with Indonesian products, enough for them to buy again and again if they adore the product, thus creating precious brand loyalty.
At the same event, the managing director of the Global Alibaba Group, K. Guru Gowrappan, noted that Alibaba’s intentions in Indonesia are to help build the country’s e-commerce ecosystem so that local SMEs will be able to thrive.
Alibaba had already begun to extend its reach into the Southeast Asian e-commerce market, with its recent purchase of a controlling stake in Singapore-based platform Lazada earlier this year.
Commenting on this partnership, the Communications and Information Ministry’s e-business director general, Azhar Hasyim, said that having their products able to transcend borders directly into a market like China would be massively beneficial for Indonesian SMEs.
In terms of online traffic, Azhar says that with many Indonesians being familiar with Chinese websites and online services, the market exposure could increase as a result on both sides.
