Remco Lupker, Co-Founder of TokoBagus.com, On E-Commerce in Indonesia [INTERVIEW]

Like it or not, buying and selling things over the Internet has became more and more of a daily activity for us – in Indonesia and across the world.

Although trust and payment issues are hindering e-commerce progress, Indonesia is still the target of huge investments thanks to its online shopping potential. This is most notable by the number of e-commerce sites which have mushroomed just this year alone — Multiply, Rakuten, Blibli, and many more.

One of the big players in the e-commerce scene in Indonesia is TokoBagus.com, which generates a whopping 160 million pageviews per month, growing at 100 percent year-on-year.

We managed to grab hold of Remco Lupker (pictured above), co-founder and director of TokoBagus, to find out more about his start-up and growth strategy. In this interview, we also picked his thoughts about the somewhat confusing and challenging e-commerce landscape in Indonesia.

1. TokoBagus is a leading e-commerce site. How did it reach this stage?

I’ve always said that “luck” is a large part of any success in business so I think that applies to us too. Luck in terms of doing the right things at the right time in the right way. Next I would say our community. Not only for using Tokobagus but more for showing us the way. From the start we’ve had a clear vision of where we wanted to go and how to do that. Our community has been of enormous value and influence on how we’ve developed our platform and execute our plans.

It goes without saying that without a talented and passionate team we would have had no chance of getting where we are right now. In respect to everything we do, we always have put emphasis on quality over quantity. You can do all the PR and marketing in the world, but in the end the best product will win.

2. TokoBagus has been going all-out, advertising both offline (TV ads) and online. Can you share more about your marketing strategy?

In an emerging market where many people are new and sometimes hesitant towards e-commerce, you need to continuously communicate a clear message. Obviously we’re also dealing with some fierce competition. So just relying on organic growth would, in our opinion, be the wrong strategy. The biggest reward for all our marketing efforts is that we currently see people automatically connecting e-commerce and online trade with Tokobagus, making Tokobagus the first place people go when wanting to buy or sell something.

Though not everyone understands why, I’m extremely happy to see other e-commerce players following this strategy now. There’s still a long way to go and a lot to achieve in the e-commerce market in Indonesia and we don’t have the illusion that we can do that just by ourselves. The market needs more serious players.

3. Cool. Any important figures or milestones you can reveal?