DialMart to enter e-commerce era

JAKARTA (JP): Grocery delivery service company DialMart, providing customers with a limited selection of items via telephone and facsimile, plans to connect their service to e- commerce business, an executive said on Monday.

"We want to expand our markets (via on-line medium) besides the conventional way of using telephones."

"But, we are not in a rush since internet subscribers in Indonesia number only 200,000 to 300,000 people compared to between 1.2 million and 1.3 million telephone lines in Greater Jakarta," the firm's chief operating officer, Tatat Setyawan, told a press conference.

DialMart has launched its website (www.dialmart.co.id) as the initial stage of the company's plan to woo more customers and expand its business via the cyber world he added.

He said the firm would establish its on-line Internet shopping in the near future.

"By entering the cyberspace era customers can see the products we're offering," Tatat said.

More than that, we believe DialMart already has "the logistic, delivery and payment systems" that can further help the firm to compete in the shopping on-line industry, he added.

"Virtual shopping has the same system of delivery, logistics and payment. The only difference between Internet shopping and the current system is the device," he said.

At the present time the website cannot provide any form of transaction. It only offers names and prices (without pictures) of some 1,000 items it offers for sale. The products are mostly basic daily needs such as rice, canned food/drinks, instant noodles, soap, tissue, shampoo, etc. in several brands and sizes.

The website does provide a form for those who want to became members of DialMart.

The company, set up in August 1998, offers free delivery to customers living in the Greater Jakarta Area with a purchase worth at least Rp 200,000 per order.

Anastasia Mia, another executive of the company, said DialMart currently has some 6,500 members. "We expect to reach a total of 30,000 members in September this year," she said.

The firm has carried out a series of promotions through radio, newspapers and street banners to help realize the ambitious plan, she added.

Mia said the total sales of the company already reach Rp 2 billion per month. (asa/bsr)