Top E-Commerce Platforms In Indonesia

(Published 21 July 2022 | Updated: 2 February 2024)

As a digital-first nation, the online commerce market in Indonesia continues to grow rapidly. According to McKinsey, there are 30 million Indonesians who transact online today, contributing to a market size of at least $8 billion. Within the next five years, this market is projected to grow to $40 billion or more.

Comparing the Top 5 E-Commerce Platforms in Indonesia: 2022 vs 2023

As the Indonesian e-commerce market continues its upward trajectory, these key players are at the forefront, shaping the nation's digital commerce landscape.

This calls for the need to guide businesses on how to transfer money to and from Indonesia

While the Top 5 players, led by the enduring dominance of Shopee and Tokopedia (recently acquired by TikTok), remain constant, this landscape evolution signifies tremendous potential for businesses to grow and expand.

Taking Indonesia as an example, this surge in business activities creates a pressing need for robust cross-border payment solutions, providing businesses with a seamless experience on how to transfer funds from Indonesia to other corners of the globe.

As the e-commerce arena continues to evolve, the demand for efficient and reliable international financial transactions becomes increasingly paramount.

Top E-Commerce Platforms in Indonesia in 2022

Here’s a mind-boggling fact: as much as 90% of internet users in Indonesia aged 16 to 64 have purchased products or services online. In terms of value, it’s estimated to be approximately $8 billion USD, according to McKinsey&Company Indonesia.

This market — the Indonesian e-commerce market — is the largest in Southeast Asia and is projected to reach $52.93 billion USD in 2023. The number of users, on the other hand, can hit 244.7 million and user penetration will pace towards 85.5% by 2027.

To put this in perspective, these figures far exceed the neighbouring markets in Southeast Asia by a considerable gap. For instance, Vietnam — the second largest e-commerce market in the region, is forecasted to record approximately only a third of Indonesia’s gross market value in 2025.

The Indonesian e-commerce market is on a steep upwards trajectory and it’s ripe for explosive growth in the coming years.

With that said, there are a few major players (regional-level and homegrown companies) in this market that are at the frontline of this boom. Here are the top 10 e-commerce platforms in Indonesia.

1. Shopee

Despite its young age, Shopee dominates the Indonesian e-commerce market. A Katadata Insights Center’s research revealed that over 57% of businesses listed Shopee as their most valuable channel. On top of this, its parent company — SEA Group — also debuted on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2017. Today, this multi-national e-commerce platform has a market capitalisation of $42 billion USD (at the time of writing).

In Indonesia, Shopee is well-known for its Gratis Ongkir Rp 0 (Free Shipping Rp 0), which allowed users to enjoy free shipping without a minimum purchase. This quickly caught on among consumers and allowed the platform to penetrate the market quickly, as logistics in Indonesia are often expensive.

Not just that, Shopee also established a presence in the online payment and food delivery services through ShopeePay and ShopeeFood, both of which have strengthened the platform’s ecosystem.

2. Tokopedia

Founded in 2009, Tokopedia is an Indonesian unicorn with a wide range of services, including online retail, digital payments, hotel bookings, movies and events ticketing, subscription plans, investment products, and a ticket sales portal for trains and flights.

Not just these, Tokopedia also provides specific services to cater to specific segments of users. To illustrate, the Tokopedia app has a product line known as Tokopedia Salam, which caters to Muslim consumers and sells Muslim fashion items, praying goods, manage zakat payments (mandatory Muslim donation), and sharia investment products.

In 2021, Tokopedia announced the completion of its merger with Indonesia’s ride-hailing service, Gojek. Together, they established a new holding company called GoTo, which went public in March 2022; currently, it is listed on Jakarta Stock Exchange.

The portmanteau “Tokopedia” is a combination of the words “toko”, which means “shop”, and “-pedia”, which represent their vision to build an all-encompassing marketplace for all Indonesians.

Currently, Tokopedia and Shopee are the two biggest e-commerce platforms in Indonesia.

Update (2 Feb 2024):

TikTok has successfully finalised its acquisition of 75.01% of Indonesia's leading e-commerce platform, Tokopedia, for $840 million. This strategic move follows the closure of TikTok's e-commerce service, TikTok Shop, in Indonesia last September due to a national ban on social media-based online shopping.

The deal with GoTo, an Indonesian tech conglomerate, involves integrating TikTok Shop's Indonesia operations into the expanded Tokopedia entity. GoTo Group CEO Patrick Walujo highlights the completion of this partnership with TikTok as a significant milestone, bringing continued benefits to Indonesia and its micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

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3. Blibli

Backed by Djarum Group, one of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates that produce Indonesian kretek cigarettes, is the online marketplace Blibli. Blibli, which is founded in 2011, is the go-to platform for household and lifestyle goods. While these sound similar to the concepts of Tokopedia and Shopee, Blibli focuses on three customer segments: B2B, B2C, and B2B2C.

Blibli prides itself on being an omnichannel platform that provides a superior quality of service and convenience to customers. For example, Blibli Click & Collect, which allows users to shop online and offline, BliPay, which enables cashless payment methods, and Blibli Paylater, which expands access to individual credit facilities.

The company also made acquisitions throughout their journey. Most notably, the Indonesian online travel agent, Tiket.com, and a supermarket operator, PT Supra Boga Lestari. On the backs of these, Blibli saw their Total Payments Volume (TPV) hit $4.1 billion USD in 2022.

4. Lazada

Lazada is an international e-commerce company founded in 2012 and stands as one of the most prominent players in the Southeast Asian region. This B2C platform, which is backed by Alibaba’s technology infrastructure, serves consumers in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, and in 2022, it announced plans to expand into Europe.

Lazada positions itself as a solution for users to enter the e-commerce market without any prior knowledge. Duri Granziol, ex-Director of Lazada Indonesia, said: “When people look for products without any preference or knowledge, they go to a mall. And if you’re not there, you lost a potential sale.” Likewise, Lazada optimises its platform based on categories, which allows even small businesses to target potential customers.

In addition, Lazada also makes a dent in the industry with its LazMall — a virtual mall that connects shoppers to over 32,000 brands. This has set a new standard in retail as it guarantees 100% product authenticity, fast delivery, and a 15-day return policy.

5. Bukalapak

Bukalapak, or “open a stall” in English, is the B2B platform for physical, virtual, financial, and logistics products. Essentially, this company helps the country’s mom-and-pop small businesses enter the online marketplace.

In comparison with Tokopedia and Shopee, Bukalapak is slightly different in that it acts as a third-party intermediary that supports the transactions between merchants and consumers. On top of this, the platform also offers supporting services such as bill payments, connecting warungs to distributors, narrowing supply chains, and lowering the cost of their merchandise.

These placed Bukalapak in a great position as the COVID-19 outbreak struck the nation. In the same year (2020), Bukalapak recorded a 130% surge in transactions. Today, this platform is home to 13.5 million micro, small, and medium enterprises, with over 100 million customers.

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6. Bhinneka

Bhinneka is often referred to as the veteran in the Indonesian e-commerce space as they were founded in 1993, well before Lazada, Tokopedia, and Bukalapak. While these competing platforms have grown massively, Bhinneka has kept a rather lower profile, focusing on B2B collaborations.

In its early days, the platform Bhinneka.com specialised in gadgets and consumer electronics. However, as the company grew, it expanded into groceries, industrial equipment, and healthcare products.

7. Orami

Orami is a parent-centric technology company with one simple vision — simplify parenting. Today, Orami is the largest all-in-one online platform for parents in Indonesia, with a supporting community, guides, and a marketplace that aims to serve all parents’ needs.

Formed in 2016 after the merger of two women-focused e-commerce sites, Moxy and Bilna, Orami now positions itself as a community-based platform. Since, they’ve launched the Orami Parenting app for parents (or users) to discuss parenting topics, online consultation classes, and parenting-related guides.

Currently, this site gets roughly 26.3 million visits per month. However, this growing niche is set to accelerate as more young parents turn to online sources for assistance and guidance in parenting.

8. Ralali

Unlike other B2B e-commerce sites like Bukalapak, which cater to mom-and-pop stores, Ralali is more comparable to China’s Alibaba — a marketplace that connects suppliers and wholesalers with buyers through its app and website. These categories range from industrial and MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) categories to office supplies, medical, agriculture, and automotive.

At a higher level, Ralali is a B2B platform that helps micro, small, and medium enterprises grow, scale, and sustain their businesses. Precisely, Ralali provides businesses with an on-demand workforce through its app.

This company is also the parent to Ralali Financial and Ralali Logistics, offering financing and logistics solutions through partnerships with FinTech companies, banks, and transport specialists.

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9. Sociolla

Social Bella, more recognisable as Sociolla, is Indonesia’s leading beauty e-commerce, who is also on a mission to build an entire digital beauty ecosystem. Beyond this, Sociolla also takes on the plastic pollution fight through its zero bubble wrap policy, switching to eco-friendly boxes, and launching the Sukin x Sociolla Recycle Station (a nation-scale recycling program initiative).

Although Sociolla started out as an e-commerce platform in 2015, the company has since expanded to 48 stores throughout Indonesia and 13 stores in Vietnam that offer an omnichannel retail experience.

Not just that, its parent company, Social Bella, now has over 30 million users across all its business units and sells an inventory of 12,00 products from 400 brands worldwide. According to Statista, this industry — the beauty and personal care industry in Indonesia — is set to amount to $7.95 billion USD in 2023, and tech-based companies such as Sociolla are at the forefront of this growth.

10. Zalora

Zalora is one of the fastest-growing online fashion retailers in Asia. Currently, this brand carries over 30,000 products from more than 500 local and international brands, while bringing a fresh dimension of fashion into the Indonesian market. While Indonesia is one of its largest markets, Zalora is also present in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

This online fashion retailer pretty much offers everything you can wear, including menswear, womenswear, shoes, accessories, sporting goods, and Muslim fashion. This has made Zalora the #1 ranked fashion and apparel destination online in Indonesia (at the time of writing).

In comparison to its competitors, Zalora’s competitive edge comes from its ability to optimise its supply chain. For instance, its broad network of logistical services enables the company to ship products in a speedy and reliable manner, even in remote locations. On the other end of customer purchases, their strategic Regional Fulfillment Centres help them resolve pain points like product returns or exchanges.

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