INDONESIA 10 TIMES GROWING MIDCLASS IN 10 YEARS DRIVE GROWTH IN ECOMMERCE

Indonesia: Urbanites Drive Growth Illustrating the rise of e-commerce in Indonesia, annual online sales are forecasted to grow from US$1 billion-$3 billion in 2014 and reach US$10 billion by the end of 2015. With its population of nearly 10 million and relatively well-developed network infrastructure, the capital, Jakarta, led initial growth in the market; recently, however, orders from outside the country’s capital have begun to swell, hinting at big opportunities for growth in second and third-tier cities. Indonesia’s online shopping industry is hindered by the country’s current state of internet infrastructure, which renders home internet access slow and expensive. Accordingly, the majority of online purchases are made during office hours, when a growing number of white-collar workers are able to use their company PCs to make purchases. Indonesia’s inefficient transportation channels present a double-edged sword to online retailers. On the one hand, this makes online shopping more attractive to urban dwellers and far-flung rural residents, while on the other, the delivery of goods suffers on account of faulty maps, unclear addresses and unreliable courier service.