Meski masyarakat Indonesia masih belum terlalu biasa berbelanja secara online, namun hal tersebut tidak menyurutkan niat para entrepreneur untuk berbisnis di bidang ecommerce lokal. KrazyMarket misalnya, situs ecommerce yang bermarkas di Cipete ini mulai beroperasi tahun 2008 kemarin dengan menggaet para penjual (merchant) yang tertarik untuk membuka pasar online, namun terhambat oleh hal-hal seperti biaya dan juga faktor teknis. Pada dasarnya KrazyMarket ini menjadi sebuah online marketplace tempat berkumpulnya para merchant yang menjual produk-produk via internet dan KrazyMarket disini membantu dengan menyiapkan infrastruktur awal dari sebuah toko online, lengkap dengan semua fitur dalam sebuah toko seperti modul pemesanan, report, stok, pengiriman, dan penagihan. Cukup lengkap bukan?

Saya sendiri mengetahui situs KrazyMarket ini dari sebuah kalender yang tiba-tiba berada di halaman depan rumah saya, menarik sekali karena metode promosi seperti ini jarang saya temukan dari sebuah bisnis online.

Namun KrazyMarket juga nampaknya melakukan online media buying dengan beriklan di beberapa situs berita lokal terkemuka dan saya pun beruntung untuk mendapatkan kesempatan mewawancarai founder dan CEO dari KrazyMarket, Philippe Do. Berikut petikan wawancara KrazyMarket dengan DailySocial.

Bisa diceritakan sedikit latar belakang berdirinya KrazyMarket?

I have always been interested in the Internet and internet-related
businesses.  I always felt that the Internet was a powerful tool that
could help make people’s lives more convenient in so many different ways.
Thus I wanted to start an internet business that could help people in
Indonesia, and in the case of KrazyMarket that would be buyers and
sellers.

Kenapa memilih jalur ecommerce?

Before we started, there were many scopes of internet-related businesses
that I felt would have potential in Indonesia, especially online gaming
(because the communities are growing and the monetization model is quite
clear) and social related websites.  However I felt that there was no
shopping search engine or online marketplace that was complete and done
well in Indonesia, and I decided to offer a solution to this problem.

Apa yang membedakan KrazyMarket dari situs penjualan online lainnya?

We believe makes KrazyMarket stronger than other marketplaces are
trust/safety within our community, and our services.

Target pasar yang diincar oleh KrazyMarket?

Anybody who has access to the Internet and wants to buy or sell.  We
also want to educate people who are not currently accessing the Internet
to start using the Internet and KrazyMarket.

Bagaimana reaksi pasar selama KrazyMarket berdiri?

So far, we are very grateful that the response has been positive.  Many
buyers and sellers have told us how our online marketplace has helped
them.  Our community is growing rapidly and we have very active members
who give us feedback on what we are doing well as well as where we need to
improve.  Our community is very important for us.

Saya menerima salah satu brosur KrazyMarket di rumah saya. Apakah metode
marketing offline seperti ini cukup efektif?

At this moment we are still testing our offline marketing efforts, so we
are unable to measure the effectiveness.

Menurut anda, bagaimana prospek pasar eCommerce di Indonesia?

The scope of ecommerce itself is very broad.  Two types of ecommerce
models that people are most familiar with are online retailing (such as
Amazon.com when they first started out) and marketplaces (such as eBay).
I believe online retailing has a greater potential to grow in Indonesia –
especially if you have the ability to offer low prices, allow buyers to
pay conveniently, and offer efficient delivery solutions.  The marketplace
model is more challenging because monetization is difficult due to the
nature of how buyers and sellers deal and transact with each other.  I
believe the key for ecommerce to grow in Indonesia is that users need to
develop new habits towards online shopping and security/trust among buyers
and sellers.

Saat ini apakah KrazyMarket memiliki SDM yang khusus menangani KrazyMarket? Atau KM hanya bersifat subsidiary services?

At this moment, we are developing everything internally.

Sudah berapa jumlah user/member di KrazyMarket?

Currently we have over 10,000 sellers active in our marketplace.

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Mungkin situs eCommerce milik lokal belum bisa dibilang terlalu banyak, terutama untuk pasar general seperti yang ditargetkan oleh KrazyMarket, namun di tahun mendatang bisa dipastikan kompetisi eCommerce di Indonesia akan semakin memanas seiring dengan turunnya biaya internet dan meningkatkan jumlah pelanggan internet. Semakin keras tentu semakin bagus 🙂

Lalu, mampukah KrazyMarket mengubah kebiasaan merchant konvensional beralih ke online? Setahu saya hal ini agak sulit, tidak mustahil, tapi sangat sulit. Atau pembaca memiliki argumen mengenai KrazyMarket? Silahkan sampaikan pertanyaan anda via kolom komentar.