100% Local and Natural: The Story of Utama Spice
The story of a Tokopedia Seller in Maximining Local Resources and Potential
Do you agree that creativity is contagious and inspiring? Although at Tokopedia, we’re focused on providing the best platform and ecosystem for our sellers and buyers, it never fails to amaze us with how creative and inspiring our sellers are. As one of the supporters of #BanggaBuatanIndonesia, a national movement initiated by President Joko Widodo in March 2020, Tokopedia is proud to help many offline local sellers to expand their business with Tokopedia.
The #BanggaBuatanIndonesia movement encourages Indonesian and platforms like Tokopedia to embrace local sellers and local creations. With our local resources and the outstanding creations of our local sellers, Indonesia can soon be one of the importers of local products to other countries. To know how great our local businesses are, we would like to introduce you to one of our sellers: Utama Spice.
Utama Spice was established in 1989 by Melanie Templer and the late Dayu Suci, a local seller located in Ubud, Bali. Upon starting their business, they were inspired by Bali’s herbal knowledge and tradition as well as the amazing benefits it could bring to people. When the demand for herbal products declines, Melanie and Dayu quickly utilize natural resources available around them to create a 100% local and natural skincare products and company. To continue the legacy, Dayu Suci sold her shares in 2015, and the business is now passed on and managed by Ria Templer, Melanie’s daughter.
Customers can enjoy a range of natural body and skincare products, starting from lotions, essential oils, haircare, face care, hand sanitizer, and many others. The ingredients mainly include flowers, oils, and plants, such as lavender, eucalyptus, virgin coconut oil, mint, tea tree, and butterfly pea.
From the start, Utama Spice has been more than just a business for Ria. It’s also about social empowerment, women empowerment, and maximizing the use and potential of local resources. For example, Utama Spices works with a dozen farmers to plant and harvest their ingredients to minimize export. Excess water from essential oil production was also reused as a natural pesticide for their harvests.
Furthermore, out of the 60 people that Utama Spice employs, 90% are Balinese women. Ria noticed that many Balinese women, who are mostly stay-at-home wives or mothers, were not utilizing their skills and were under the perception that their main function was to cook, care for their family, and do household chores. Ria refused to follow this perspective and instead opened their business for local Balinese women to also be breadwinners of their families.
Coming full circle, as producers of hand sanitizers, Utama Spice gives back to the community by distributing hand sanitizers to farmers, hospitals, and people in need in small areas in Bali.
Similar to other businesses, Utama Spice was also impacted by the pandemic, experiencing a 80% drop in offline sales. They quickly shifted their business online and started selling their products on Tokopedia. Since then, Utama Spice has been back in business, gaining sales 5x higher than before.
Ria gave some tips for other sellers to take a breath and focus on finding ways to be creative with promos, advertisements, and campaigns during the pandemic. Sellers can also try to add small samples and catalogs of their products, so customers can try other variants and revisit their store to repurchase.
As Indonesians, we should be proud and support local businesses and creators. The story of Utama Spice shows us that we are capable of creating a positive impact for ourselves, our community, and our country. For Tokopedia, as a home to over 11 million sellers all around Indonesia, success stories have always been our daily motivation. Sending our positive spirit and the best of luck and success to our local sellers in Indonesia!
