Indonesian producers open online shops
By Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, November 12, 2001
Jakarta, Indonesia — Furniture companies here are looking to the Internet to increase sales, according to reports in the Jakarta Post newspaper here.
The newspaper put the number of local furniture outlets online at approximately 50. The Internet portal Indonesia-furniture.com alone claims more than 30 manufacturers.
Dozens of other furniture companies also sell via the Web, including EastJava.com, which features vendors from West Java, Central Java and East Java. Several other companies based outside Java, such as in Bali and Toraja, also are represented.
Another Indonesian company, PT Cahaya Sakti Multi Intraco, which is based in Bogor, West Java, sells ready-to-assemble furniture on the Web at olympicfurniture.co.id. And Graji Furniture, a specialist in rattan furniture based in Surakarta, Central Java, sells rattan furniture. Old Java, a teak furniture producer based in Bogor, West Java, sells via its own site at oldjava.com.
Old Java launched its site in August 2000 as B2B in order allow customers in more than 25 countries to order online. The company also offers inventory status via its site, and Old Java plans to upgrade by adding production updates, shipping schedules and billing.
The upgrades " will enable us to fully automate all our business processes and make us much more efficient and accurate," Eko Sonata of Old Java told the Jakarta Post.
The company makes 400 models of chairs, beds and dining tables from reclaimed old teak and ships container-only orders. The company's Web site costs the company less than $1,000 per year to maintain.
In Indonesia, furniture companies are among the first to embrace the Internet for e-commerce. Concern about security of online financial transactions is a barrier, however.
B2B e-commerce trade transaction in Indonesia is estimated to increase in volume to US$500 million by 2003 from about $50 million last year, according to the newspaper. In contrast, B2C transactions are projected to reach US$600 million by 2003.
In industrialized countries such as the United States, on-line shopping has become part of people's lifestyle.
