New player in Indonesia’s ecommerce race has a big advantage: limitless marketing

Indonesian media conglomerate followed by the launch of its own shopping site Brand Outlet. MNC Group is aggressively expanding its online business. Its latest foray in this realm is online shopping site Brand Outlet.

Late last year, MNC launched online travel agent Mister Aladin, followed by the debut of a video portal called MeTube early this week.

MNC’s media empire spans TV channels, radio stations, online news portals, as well as a number of print papers and magazines. It plans to use this network to market its newest ecommerce endeavour.

Limited product line

Brand Outlet focuses solely on fashion items. It offers them in two categories: regular and premium. Items found in the regular category have price tags around US$100 or lower, while premium items can cost hundreds of dollars.

Brand Outlet claims to already work together with hundreds of local and international brands. But taking a look around the site, it seems its product offering is still very limited.

International luxury brands like Boss or Louis Vuitton, which shoppers might expect to find in the premium section, are missing completely. There is, for example, not a single item to be found in the premium women’s shoes category. In the regular fashion category, women have exactly four pairs of shoes to choose from.

In terms of payment methods, the site currently only offers credit card payment and bank transfers. Competitors in the local market tend to offer cash-on-delivery payments to include those without access to online methods.

It’s all about traffic

Brand Outlet’s CEO is none other than Hary Tanoesoedibjo, MNC Group’s president director. Tanoesoedibjo must be good at multitasking, because in addition to his political interest as chairman of the Perindo party, he also heads up the recently launched MeTube.

Tanoesoedibjo’s daughter, Valencia, is Brand Outlet’s chief commercial officer. She worked in various roles within MNC and the fashion industry. COO Andry Huzain brings in ecommerce experience from his previous posting at Lazada.

As a newcomer to the scene, Brand Outlet will face stiff competition from Zalora, BerryBenka, and VIP Plaza, all of which sell fashion online and have been doing so for years.

Andry believes companies who choose to partner with Brand Outlet get one major benefit. Through its affiliation with MNC, Brand Outlet has access to a network of media channels which it will be able to leverage for high brand exposure. MNC’s network includes TV channels RCTI and MNC TV, and online news portal Okezone. MNC also has a joint venture with Tencent, WeChat’s mother company, through which MNC promotes the Chinese messenger app in Indonesia.