Inside Indonesia’s booming e-fulfillment space and decoding Dmonstudio

Welcome to The Checkout! Delivered every Thursday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in ecommerce. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by registering here.

Hi there,

In ecommerce, fulfillment makes all the difference. Customers stick around when deliveries are quicker, and 50% of them don’t return if the delivery experience is subpar.

Yet, fulfillment costs make up an nearly 70% of a typical ecommerce order on average. Throw in sophisticated storage infrastructure and complex logistic networks, and the price of fulfillment could skyrocket.

That hasn’t fazed players in Indonesia’s burgeoning e-fulfillment industry, though. From ecommerce heavyweights like Tokopedia and Bukalapak to industry outsiders, everyone wants to have skin in the game.

Still, e-fulfillment can be a cutthroat game. In this week’s Big Story, my colleague, Jofie Yordan, highlights Indonesia’s booming e-fulfilment industry and digs into what it takes to thrive in it.

Our Hot Take this week takes a look at Dmonstudio’s sudden closure and what it means for ByteDance. Rather than being a setback, it’s another step forward in the Chinese tech giant’s ecommerce experiment.

— Tian Wen

THE BIG STORY
In Indonesia, a rising niche in ecommerce: e-fulfilment

Image credit: Timmy Loen

While the ecommerce marketplaces offer these services in-house, a rising crop of third-party players are coming up.

THE HOT TAKE
Why ByteDance shut down its Shein clone

Image credit: Gearrice