Arnold Sebastian Egg : Indonesia, a
promising market for E Commerce
T. Hidayat, Contributor, Jakarta | Sat,
10/08/2011 1:18 PM |
Online business is still a mystery to many
Indonesians, so it is not surprising that
they are often dismissive when they hear
that someone is going into online
business. Arnold Sebastian Egg also
observed the question mark on people’s
faces when he first started to seriously
pursue the business.
But the man from the nation of
windmills (Holland) did not give up easily
as he was fully convinced of the bright
future of online business here in
Indonesia, which according to him is a
promising market for e-Commerce. His
conviction is based on the fact that the
archipelagic nation can be unified
through Internet technology.
When Arnold first set up the first online
shop in Indonesia, TokoBagus.com in
2005 he started his business from the
island of Bali. The island of Bali, in his
view, is not only a popular tourism
destination, but also lends much support
to new businesses, especially those that
are technology based. “At first it was
only a small office in Bali,” he recalled
while saying that the existence of an
online shop is not limited to space as
long as it has good infrastructure
support.
Toko Bagus is indeed not an online store.
“The transactions are still done offline,”
said Arnold. He added that currently
Indonesia is not ready with a website
with a full e-commerce system as there
are still many bugs in the payment
system and the level of consumer trust
in online transactions is still very low.
“These are the reasons we have made
TokoBagus.com more like an online
catalog,” he explained.
Arnold has conducted aggressive
awareness campaigns and promotions
about TokoBagus.com to get as many
members as possible and to convince
them that online business can be
profitable.
To further convince consumers and the
public in general TokoBagus.com has also
prepared rules and regulations for online
business so that customers feel more
secure about their transactions.
Slowly but surely Arnold’s efforts are
bearing positive fruit. The popularity of
TokoBagus.com continues to rise and
today it is the largest, most complete,
most popular free online site in
Indonesia. It has various categories of
advertisements covering numerous
products and services. Every day
Tokobagus.com receives as many as
10,000 new ads. Based on a survey
released by alexa.com (for site rates) as
per March 27, 2011 Tokobagus.com is
number 23 among the sites most visited
in Indonesia.
Arnold said that Tokobagus.com has a
number of superior features. It is user
friendly, has a large variety of products
and services and live chat customer
service. All these features meet
customer requirements based on an
internal survey.
Tokobagus.com also tried television
advertising, however, according to Arnold
it was not very effective.”To reach the
online market our strategy has to be
through digital marketing,” he explained.
And, since 2008 Tokobagus.com has
been quite aggressive in widening its
market.
He said another plus point is the free
space given to vendors. “We give them
the space free. Their promos are
considered ads and every free ad is
organized according to when it is
received so that the advertiser of today’s
ad will appear before the ad of a vendor
that placed an ad the day before,” he
said.
Tokobagus.com is enjoying rapid growth
with its current 700,000 plus members.
“But that is the total number of
members from the start while only 40
percent are active,” he said at Hotel
Indonesia.
At present the store has 40 employees.
The office moved from Denpasar to
Jakarta in January 2011. “Our
consideration in moving was easier
access,” he said adding that here
Tokobagus.com can coordinate more
easily with its business partners.
Arnold explained that Tokobagus.com
does not share any profits from
transactions between the vendor and the
buyer on its site.”This kind of website is
also free in other countries,” he said. He
explained that transactions take place
directly between consumers (consumer
to consumer — C to C) or business to
consumer (B to C).
For Arnold the high quality of the
products and customer satisfaction is
very important so that he can filter
fraudulent advertisers by rechecking
first. “What is most important is our
customers’ trust in us,” said Arnold who
is applying for Indonesian citizenship.
He said that according to a survey
transaction as per December 2010 were
at Rp 300 billion. “This is only for
products with a small value and does not
include other commodities like property
and automotive, because if we include all
the results of the survey would not be
valid,” said the graduate of
telecommunications from James Madison
University.
He said he has not focused on return of
investment. “TokoBagus.com is still in
the developing stage so profit is not yet
our focus,” said Arnold.
However, he said, that although making
profit was not yet the focus
TokoBagus.com had a clear revenue
source, which was from the numerous
ads on its web pages.
TokoBagus.com also charges its
members who wish to use its promo
points to boost sales. Promo points are
sold for Rp20,000 for 20 points,
Rp50,000 for 50 promo points and
Rp.100,000 for 100 points.
Background
Name: Arnold Sebastian Egg
Place and date of birth: Gouda, March 26,
1980
Status: Married
Education:
1999 – 2000: James Madison University,
Higher Informatics, International
Business.
1997 – 2000: Hogeschool Rotterdam,
HIO.
Experience:
Nov 2008 – Present: President Director,
founder & shareholder, PT Tokobagus.
Jan 2001 – Nov 2008: Technical
Consultant , PT ISYA JAYA.
Jan 2006 – Sept 2006: Information
Technology Management, Soltria Europe
BV.