Tokopedia Features are a Seller’s Best Friend
Have you ever wondered, “Am I capable of starting my own business? Where do I start?”. Everybody is built differently. Some are more comfortable working at a company or organization. Some prefer to start their own business or continue the legacy of a family business. Either way, the journey is guaranteed to be fun and interesting in every work style we choose.
Home to more than 11 million sellers, there are vast amounts of stories from our merchants on their journey in creating their own business at Tokopedia. We’d like to introduce to you one of our sellers, Imam Masyuda, the owner of Sambal Raja Roa.
Story of Sambal Raja Roa
Imam Masyuda started his business in 2014 with his significant other, now Imam’s wife, when he was still in college. In his business, Imam sold Roa sambal, a traditional Manadonese spicy paste made from smoked roa fish (halfbeak). Imam and his wife chose this product because, coincidentally, his wife is skilled in making this dish.
In the beginning, they can gain profit as much as Rp 2,300,000 every month from selling the product on Instagram. However, as the business grew and more orders came, Imam found that it’s quite hard to maintain due to his full-time work. For several years, he had to move to different cities like Balikpapan, Pekalongan, Jakarta, to work. Eventually, in 2019, Imam and his wife decided to resign and focus on their business full-time. For some, this might be seen as a risky move. However, Imam believes that there’s luck and fortune in every step a person takes.
The business was performing gloriously for several years until the COVID-19 pandemic struck Indonesia. The pandemic causes his sales to decline by 80%. Not wanting to be a victim of this condition, Imam started researching opportunities to save his business and discovered an increase in e-commerce platform usage. He then quickly registered to become one of Tokopedia’s merchants.
Tips from Our Seller
In the interview, Imam shared two crucial tips on how Tokopedia sellers can make a comeback, a successful one to be exact, during this pandemic.
1. Expand your reach through Social Media
Expanding your business’ social media is extremely important! Imam suggests that the use of social media should not only be limited to showcase your products. Instead, use these platforms to interact, engage, and connect with your buyers using simple gimmicks. For example, on Sambal Raja Roa’s Instagram page, Imam frequently posts tips and recipes that use Sambal Raja Roa as its main ingredients, provides information on his products, and more. This way, Imam can increase awareness of his products and introduce his products even more to potential buyers.
2. Maximize the Use of Tokopedia Features
When selling in Tokopedia, sellers have full autonomy to be as creative or innovative in selling their products. As a platform, Tokopedia keeps innovating to release helpful features for sellers to maximize sales. That’s exactly what Imam did! Imam regularly participates in campaigns, such as Kumpulan Toko Pilihan (KTP), Flash Sales, and more, and ads, which tripled his sales, and 70% of his sales come from Tokopedia. In addition, Bebas Ongkir is also one of Imam’s favorite features as it allows buyers from different parts of Indonesia to enjoy his product.
Message from Imam
We can learn from Imam’s story that you don’t necessarily have to have a master plan to start a business. For example, Sambal Raja Roa began from a simple hobby of cooking Manadonese cuisine and a desire to avoid traveling and moving from one city to another due to work.
Furthermore, Imam also inspired us to seize every opportunity or moment. The two tips that Imam shared previously are testaments to his unwillingness to give up, considering an 80% decline in sales would make us feel extremely helpless. It also takes willingness, some research, and looking for opportunities or hacks around you to stand up again.
As home to more than 11 million sellers, Tokopedia hopes our dear sellers can continue to be successful and explore our features to maximize their selling potential. Wishing our sellers the best of luck throughout this pandemic!
