Stepping Up Warung Digitalization Through Mitra Bukalapak’s Multiple Capabilities
When Mitra Bukalapak was launched in 2017, it had a relatively simple goal: Enabling offline payments for online purchases. We strive to provide technological breakthroughs that will help warung owners simplify their business management by optimizing the supply chain process; connecting them directly with FMCG principals at more competitive prices, allowing online stock purchases, and enabling same-day delivery.
Within just a few years, Mitra Bukalapak has grown to connect over 16 million MSMEs in more than 200 cities with an incredibly diverse range of products and services. We realized the enormous progress that has been made, including how far positive impact our Mitras have received. There’s nothing happier for me and the team than watching how Mitra Bukalapak successfully elevates warung to the next level.
Staying true to our goal of putting warungs on the same level playing field with modern retailers through digitalization, we are offering an “end-to-end solution”. A suite of services that will address the needs of warung owners, while offering their end customers with a more convenient shopping experience at our Mitras.
The diversification of products and services will bring great business opportunities for Mitras. Therefore, Mitra Bukalapak keeps working on penetrating multiple capabilities to the warung operations.
Creating Agents of Change through Virtual Product Capabilities
Mitra Bukalapak provides warungs with a wider variety of services, including virtual products (VPs) such as phone credits, electricity tokens, e-wallet top-ups, bill payments, money transfers, and transportation tickets — this way they can increase their warungs’ value proposition to their communities. Now, with Mitra Bukalapak, warung owners can carry over 42 types of VPss and financial services. This capability has proven to bring notable impact to the warungs.
Among those who enjoyed this positive impact is Juragan Ranti, a Mitra from Karawang, West Java.
Initially, she used to sell only groceries and daily necessities like any other warungs. After joining Mitra Bukalapak, her warung, named “Warung Mamak”, became a sort of tech hub in the neighborhood. In addition to groceries, it now offers virtual products, facilitates remittance, and accepts payments through various methods such as bank transfers and e-wallets.
Thanks to this product offering, Juragan Ranti has been able to boost her income by attracting more customers. She also becomes a financial inclusion agent, promoting digital and financial literacy among her consumers by actively offering bank transfers or QRIS payments.
Tapping into Local Communities through Social Commerce
Success stories from the Mitras such as Juragan Ranti continuously inspire us to develop more features on Mitra Bukalapak that would fulfill the needs of micro business owners.
We launched Belanja Bareng, a feature that allows warung owners to collectively shop for fresh products at an affordable price together with their peers. Belanja Bareng also provides risk-free opportunities as they do not need to stock fresh goods at the risk of going bad.
Juragan Bunga, a Mitra who has been using the Belanja Bareng feature since 2021, is one of our satisfied users. Juragan Bunga told us that the base product price offered by Belanja Bareng is affordable, allowing her to maximize her profit. The fresh products sold through Belanja Bareng are also at their best quality. Another plus point of Belanja Bareng is how the service offers convenience by delivering the products directly from the suppliers to her warung. This eliminates the need for her and her customers to travel long distances to purchase the goods offline as they can simply place their orders through Juragan Bunga and collect them from her warung.
Juragan Bunga also admitted that Belanja Bareng has allowed her to shop without being worried about the constantly rising prices of fresh products sold at the traditional market.
Enhancing the Roles of Warungs with BukaSend
BukaSend is Bukalapak’s logistic service that integrates different goods delivery options from Indonesia’s top logistic companies for the users to choose from. Upon rolling out this service on our Marketplace platform, we extended BukaSend to our Mitra Bukalapak app so that warung owners can utilize this feature to provide goods delivery service to their customers. This also means our Mitras have an opportunity to add their revenue streams.
Juragan Tia, a Mitra from Demak, Central Java, said BukaSend plays a fairly crucial role in helping her grow her customer base. A wide range of services plus longer opening hours has made Juragan Tia’s customers keep coming back. This certainly leads to Juragan Tia’s increasing income.
After all, our Mitras told us that upon utilizing the app and features, they have successfully increased their income by three times on average. Some of them have even hired up to three employees.
We seek to extend our reach to other businesses that share similar pain points with warungs. This endeavor is what we expect to power the company’s sustainable growth.
