Indonesia’s Digital Climax
The internet — an endless plethora of creativity, and oddly enough, near instant obsolescence — is a reckless place. What is trending while you’re reading this will soon be irrelevant as new digital developments displace them.
In preparation for the next internet minute, Percolate Galactic (building on Razorfish’s international outlook report) took a dive into the analytics and anecdotes of the Indonesian market to examine ways that the digital climax is shifting consumer behavior.
The Overview
Indonesia is awkwardly dominant in the SEA digital space. With a staggering 73 million users of the internet, and 62 million active on social media; it is a powerhouse in the APAC region. On paper, this would make Indonesia a market that should be reaching toward the giddy-heights of India. And yet: the poor infrastructure and still developing educational sector throughout the archipelago have created a situation where the country is on a non-stop cycle of sprinting and stumbling.
But those are decidedly macro, and we’d like to romance you with something a little more micro.
- Drawing a distinction between Gen X-ers and Millennials — though about a decade apart, 10 years in internet minutes is a massive gap. We have drastically different relationships with the digital universe and (not to mention) attention spans.
While an individual from the Gen X category may be loyal to a brand since the time he’s walked into their brick and mortar (as reported by Nielsen), a millennial is less likely to have a similar sort of attachment to a physical store.
Will this divide continue? Probably not! But the distinction still exists, and until proof arrives that GenX and millennials have joined hand in e-commerce ecstasy in equal numbers, planning should be done accordingly.
The proof of the eventual brick-and-mortar apocalypse: both demographic groups report it being more time consuming and inconvenient to physically go to a store, as opposed to clicking a few buttons online and having it arrive at our doorstep.
2. Experience domination vs. TV commercials — or, how to cope in a world where DJ Khaled eating a hamburger in the shower is more culturally powerful than a television campaign.
Over the last year, there have been heaps of proclamations and supporting (mildly alarming, depending on who you ask) statistics surrounding the death of brand loyalty. One in five Indonesians claim that they are brand loyal, but it is an easily swayable decision — of course, to be blamed on the Internet.
What does this mean? It means that at any moment a status quo that has that has existed for generations can be wiped away clean by the new, new thing — and your research and advertising budget should be prepared to greet this.
It is vital to note that the Indonesian millennial market is drawn to products/brands that can become a coherent part of the Snapchat/Instagram movie they’ve cast themselves in. Quality and durability matter, so long as they’re something that looks good in the context of someone’s life.
4. Outstanding digital experiences keep us loyal even in the face of infinite choices online.
Adventures in Cross-Channel de-riddling.
Online shopping is a hobby. Boredom or an unproductive day at work can (and does!) lead to an impulsive online transactions. Taking for example e-commerce giants like Zalora, Lazada and MatahariMall — there is absolutely no reason to go shop outside when the click of a finger does it. The ability to refine a search also really helps.
For a country where consumerism evolved staggeringly rapidly from pasar to mall to online, the effects of this evolution are just starting to be felt.
Indonesia is such a weird animal: the fundamental infrastructure is broken, but everyone works around it (with a smile)! With investments from the Telkom Group in fiber infrastructure (an estimated $200 million) and the growing middle middle class who are well-versed smartphone users, online retail giants such as MatahariMall, Lazada and Tokopedia have managed to make the poor infrastructure work to their advantage even though shipping services are unreliable and there is not much consumer protection.
They use shipping services such as TIKI and JNE and the even more unorthodox upstarts like Go-Jek, and they give target demographics what they want: personalized customer service, incredible bargains, compelling EDM’s (which are strategically timed), and curated products/sellers. One of our team members also chimed in saying that she gets her imported snacks (like cheetos) online because retail stores like Kem Chicks cost a fortune and attempting to get there post work hours is a waste of life.
