Tag Archives: Emil Arifin

Stoqo’s Shutdown and Survival Strategy for B2B Commerce

The corona pandemic has severed some culinary businesses in the country. The declining situation is inevitable due to the susceptive character of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) that forces people to do most activities at home.

Since the first Covid-19 case emerged in early March, the food business has reportedly continued to shrink. The loss has affected such players as the upper-middle-class restaurants and micro and small culinary enterprises. Digital platforms providing culinary business needs will also be affected. It happens to Stoqo.

Stoqo officially announced an operational shutdown. A few days before, the startup, which was led by Aswin Andrison as a Co-Founder & CEO, only announced that it had temporarily stopped operating. However, the pandemic finally forced them out of business.

“Since 2017, we have built STOQO to serve and empower SMEs in the culinary field in Indonesia. However, the situation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a drastic reduction in revenue for us,” Stoqo wrote on their website.

Pengumuman resmi berhenti beroperasi di situs Stoqo.
Shutdown operation announcement

Upcoming Hazard

Stoqo is a platform that focuses on providing basic food needs for places to eat, especially restaurants, catering cafes, and home-based culinary businesses. Stoqo supplies a variety of foods ranging from meat, vegetables, flour, coffee, and others.

Aswin stated that Stoqo was focused on playing in the B2B segment ever since. They realize the platform as a hub to meet the needs of culinary businesses. With the prospect of being considered quite brilliant, it’s no wonder Stoqo won series A funding from Monk’s Hill Partners and Accel Partners India at the end of December 2018.

However, the reality ended bitterly for Stoqo. The number of restaurants, cafes, and restaurants that stopped operating claimed their income. The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association said that at least thousands of restaurants were closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The unfortunate events of B2B commerce business like Stoqo also happen to Eden Farm and Wahyoo. Although, the scale is yet to worrying. Eden Farm Founder & CEO, David Gunawan said there were two segments they generally served, namely restaurants and grocery stalls. Of the two, David said that the restaurant was hit by the bigger impact.

“It’s true that high-end restaurants and those in the mall are closed or shifting to delivery, half of our clients in the segment are closed,” David told DailySocial.

Meanwhile, Wahyoo Founder & CEO Peter Shearer shared a similar experience. A number of stalls affiliated with Wahyoo have stopped operating, especially those located in office areas. Peter also did not mention the exact number. But he made sure other stalls were not seriously affected by this outbreak, especially those located in residential and settlement areas.

Survival strategy

Although the impact is not as severe as Stoqo’s experience, a prolonged pandemic can be a scourge for the sustainability of the Wahyoo and Eden Farm businesses. Special strategies are needed so that they avoid the same fate of Stoqo.

Peter mentioned the problem is to keep the request ongoing. The trick to Wahyoo’s demand has been to help stalls sell on digital platforms such as Go-Food. At the same time, the implementation of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in many regions has shifted shopping patterns in Wahyoo.

“The positive impact is that the PSBB and Covid-19 have forced the food stall owners to adapt faster,” he added.

On the other hand, Eden Farm, which clients are mostly grocery stores, has another strategy to stay afloat during this pandemic. David said they now rely on the agency system to reach buyers who are reluctant to leave the house.

David rejects this new system as B2C. He said that his party only reactivated the group purchasing model, which actually existed since last year but was only revived three weeks ago.

Changes in segment composition also helped Eden Farm from the majority of their clients, restaurants and middle-up restaurants to the majority of SMEs. David said that currently 80% of their clients are middle-to-lower business people.

“We’re still getting new customers, the customer purchase growth is ongoing. Indeed, it was reducing in the early days [the pandemic], but it was back [normal] again after a few weeks,” said David.

PHRI Deputy Chairman for the Restaurant Sector Emil Arifin said there were already thousands of restaurants that had stopped operating throughout Indonesia. The estimated figure comes from the number of restaurants scattered in 327 malls that have been closed out of a total of 700 malls. In other words, more than 8,000 restaurants have closed.

“That does not include restaurants in office buildings, stand alone, in tourist parks and other facilities outside the mall. If you want to add up all of them, I think twice,” Emil explained to DailySocial.

Under this situation, Emil estimates that the culinary business in the country has lost around Rp2.5 trillion per month with 200 thousand people losing their jobs.


Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Covid-19 memaksa Stoqo berhenti beroperasi. Platform B2B Commerce lain bersiasat agar tak mengalami nasib serupa di masa pandemi ini.

Tutupnya Stoqo dan Siasat Bertahan Pelaku B2B Commerce

Pandemi virus korona memukul bisnis kuliner Tanah Air. Redupnya bisnis ini tak terhindarkan lantaran bahaya penyebaran corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) yang sangat mudah sehingga memaksa sebagian besar orang hanya bisa beraktivitas dari rumah.

Sejak kasus Covid-19 pertama muncul pada awal Maret lalu, bisnis makanan dilaporkan terus menyusut. Kerugian tak hanya ditanggung para pelaku seperti restoran menengah ke atas dan pengusaha kuliner kelas mikro dan kecil. Platform digital penyedia kebutuhan bisnis kuliner pun kena imbasnya. Hal ini sudah terjadi pada Stoqo.

Stoqo resmi mengumumkan mereka berhenti beroperasi. Beberapa hari sebelumnya, startup yang dinahkodai Co-Founder & CEO Aswin Andrison ini hanya mengumumkan berhenti beroperasi untuk sementara waktu. Namun pandemi akhirnya memaksa mereka gulung tikar.

“Sejak tahun 2017, kami membangun STOQO untuk melayani dan memberdayakan UKM dalam bidang kuliner di Indonesia. Namun, situasi yang dipicu oleh pandemi COVID-19 telah menyebabkan penurunan pendapatan secara drastis bagi kami,” tulis Stoqo dalam situs mereka.

Pengumuman resmi berhenti beroperasi di situs Stoqo.
Pengumuman resmi berhenti beroperasi di situs Stoqo.

Ancaman yang membayangi

Stoqo adalah platform yang fokus menyediakan kebutuhan bahan pokok bagi tempat makan, khususnya restoran, kafe katering, dan usaha kuliner rumahan. Stoqo menyuplai berbagai bahan makanan mulai dari daging, sayur-mayur, tepung, kopi, dan lain-lain.

Sedari awal Aswin memang menyatakan Stoqo fokus bermain di segmen B2B. Mereka mewujudkan platformnya sebagai hub pemenuh kebutuhan pebisnis kuliner. Dengan prospek yang dianggap cukup cemerlang maka tak heran Stoqo berhasil meraih pendanaan seri A dari Monk’s Hill Partners dan Accel Partners India pada akhir Desember 2018.

Namun kenyataan berakhir pahit untuk Stoqo. Banyaknya restoran, kafe, dan rumah makan yang berhenti beroperasi merenggut pendapatan mereka. Perhimpunan Hotel dan Restoran Indonesia mengatakan bahwa setidaknya ada ribuan restoran yang tutup akibat wabah Covid-19.

Pahitnya bisnis B2B commerce seperti Stoqo ini juga dirasakan oleh Eden Farm dan Wahyoo. Kendati begitu mereka mengklaim skalanya masih belum mengkhawatirkan. Founder & CEO Eden Farm David Gunawan mengatakan ada dua segmen yang umumnya mereka layani yakni restoran dan warung kelontong. Dari keduanya, David menyebut restoran lah yang kena imbas lebih besar.

“Memang benar restoran mewah dan yang di mal itu pada tutup atau setidaknya jadi delivery, setengah klien kita di segmen itu tutup,” ungkap David kepada DailySocial.

Sementara itu Founder & CEO Wahyoo Peter Shearer bercerita pengalaman serupa. Sejumlah warung yang berafiliasi dengan Wahyoo sudah berhenti beroperasi terutama yang berlokasi di area perkantoran. Peter juga tak menyebut berapa jumlah pastinya. Namun ia memastikan warung-warung lain tak terkena dampak serius dari wabah ini, terutama yang berlokasi di area perumahan dan perkampungan.

Siasat bertahan

Meskipun dampaknya tak separah Stoqo, pandemi berkepanjangan dapat menjadi momok bagi keberlangsungan bisnis Wahyoo dan Eden Farm. Strategi khusus pun diperlukan agar mereka terhindar dari nasib serupa Stoqo.

Peter menjelaskan bahwa masalah yang ada sekarang adalah menjaga permintaan terjaga. Kiat menjaga permintaan dari Wahyoo sejauh ini adalah membantu warung-warung agar dapat berjualan di platform digital seperti Go-Food. Di saat yang bersamaan pelaksanaan pembatasan sosial berskala besar (PSBB) di banyak daerah sudah mengeser pola belanja di Wahyoo.

“Positifnya secara tidak langsung dengan adanya PSBB dan Covid-19 ini memaksa adaptasi pemilik warung makan terhadap digital jadi lebih cepat,” imbuhnya.

Di lain tempat, Eden Farm yang kliennya sebagian besar adalah toko kelontong punya siasat lain untuk tetap bertahan selama pandemi ini. David mengatakan mereka kini mengandalkan sistem keagenan untuk menjangkau pembeli yang enggan keluar rumah.

David menolak sistem baru ini sebagai B2C. Ia menyebut pihaknya hanya mereaktivasi model pembelian secara berkelompok yang sejatinya sudah ada sejak tahun lalu namun baru dihidupkan kembali tiga pekan lalu.

Perubahan komposisi segmen juga membantu Eden Farm dari mayoritas klien mereka restoran dan rumah makan menengah ke atas menjadi mayoritas UKM. David menyebut saat ini klien mereka 80% berasal dari pebisnis menengah ke bawah.

“Kita tetap dapat customer baru, pertumbuhan pembelian customer pun masih berjalan. Memang di awal-awal [pandemi] berkurang, tapi lewat seminggu balik [normal] lagi,” ucap David.

Wakil Ketua Umum PHRI Bidang Restoran Emil Arifin menyebut sudah ada ribuan restoran yang berhenti beroperasi di seluruh Indonesia. Perkiraan angka itu berasal dari jumlah restoran yang tersebar di 327 mal yang sudah tutup dari total 700-an mal. Dengan kata lain sudah 8.000 lebih restoran yang tutup.

“Itu belum termasuk resto di gedung perkantoran, stand alone, di taman wisata dan di fasilitas lainnya di luar mal. Kalau mau ditotal semua, saya kira dua kalinya,” terang Emil kepada DailySocial.

Dengan keadaan itu, Emil memperkirakan bisnis kuliner di Tanah Air sudah merugi sekitar Rp2,5 triliun per bulan dengan 200 ribu orang yang kehilangan pekerjaannya.