Departing from the fact that the dominant web page now in cyberspace is an online trading center that we are familiar with as e-marketplaces, the research entitled “Consumer Behavior of the Indonesian Online Market Board in 2019” tries to capture the behavior of e-marketplace consumers in 2019. The strengthening of the role of e-marketplaces online marketplace over the past few years have been the reason Dr. Sahid Susilo Nugroho, Lecturer of Department of Management and Coordinator Center for the Study of Online Trade, Fintech, and Social Media, tried to raise this issue.
According to Dr. Sahid, there are many reasons why online marketplaces are getting stronger, one of which is the one-stop shopping phenomenon where it is enough from only one page for users to view, select, and buy various products/brands in a much more practical and convenient way. As we may already know, Indonesia still has homework related to trust issues and transactions that are detrimental to consumers. In the context of the online marketplace, this problem can be overcome because there is an admin role from the online market board as a referee/jury who will then resolve problematic transactions. This fact proves that the role of intermediaries is now getting stronger.
In this study, consumer behavior that is interesting to observe is related to 3 conditions, namely increasing consumer preferences for shopping on online marketplace, consumer reluctance to shop on international online marketplace, and the complexity of product information sold on Indonesian online marketplace. The research method was carried out by conducting a survey at the end of 2019 in 8 major cities in Indonesia with a quota of 50 respondents each, the majority of whom were women and aged between 21-25 years. In addition, most of the respondents are students and have done at least 3 times shopping on online marketplace in the last year.
Regarding the survey results, as many as 77.8% of respondents chose Shopee as their favorite online marketplace. In addition, as many as 89.4% of respondents prefer application-based platforms to web pages, the majority of reasons being ease of use and transaction security. In his research, Dr. Sahid also examines consumer spending patterns on online marketplaces. The shopping pattern is examined based on several variables, namely the frequency of consumer shopping in the last year, the average shopping value of consumers each transaction, product categories that respondents usually buy, and the frequency of consumer visits to websites or applications without making any transactions.
Furthermore, Dr. Sahid explained about consumer problems both on local and foreign online marketplaces. On local online marketplace, the top three problems experienced by consumers are that the goods sent do not match the advertisements (images and descriptions), the goods do not have standard sizes for the fashion product category, and inaccurate information on the availability of goods (when the transaction has been made, the item was out of stock). Meanwhile, the three problems on foreign online marketplace that are most often experienced by consumers are relatively long shipping times, relatively expensive shipping costs, and high import tax rates (around 30%).
At the end of his presentation, Dr. Sahid explained what things are important for consumers when shopping on online marketplaces. The level of consumer interest is categorized by product and price, quality of the page or application, transaction facility features, transaction payment features, delivery features, privacy and security protection features, customer service features, sales promotion programs and celebrity endorsements, as well as customer communication. The research presentation ended with a question and answer session guided by the moderator of the event.
Reportage: Kirana Lalita Pristy/Sony Budiarso.
