Indoflorist.com: A Tale of a small online shop in Indonesia

Indoflorist.com: A Tale of a small online shop in Indonesia

By Vishnu K. Mahmud

JAKARTA (JP): Be it books or flowers, buying gifts online is a
convenience for the ever growing Internet community. Before, if
you were lucky, you could call up the florist or local bookstore
to order and deliver presents to your door. Payment was always an
issue as some merchants wouldn't accept credit cards over the
phone. And in Indonesia, most people don't even have credit
cards.

That didn't stop Kurniawan Junaedhie from setting up shop.
Formerly a reporter with the Kompas newspaper group, Kurniawan
was curious about the Internet and e-commerce. After interviewing
some Indonesian businessmen preparing to dabble in the Internet,
he was skeptical of their hopes of realizing thousands of dollars
in monthly revenues. The Indonesian Internet space was still
small since many Indonesians had yet to acquire a telephone much
less a computer in 1999.

Since his aunt had a flower shop and his wife could design
some nice floral arrangements, Kurniawan decided to sell flowers
on the net as a part-time business. Just to see what all the fuss
was about. Indoflorist.com was established as the best way to
send flowers in Indonesia.

It's a simple website, using credit card infrastructure from
CCNow.com as their payment gateway and a small local Internet
Service Provider for the server space. Most of their items are
priced in US dollars but at very competitive prices. The site is
targeted at the global audience so it is in English. The items
sold online range from flowers to fruit, cakes to chocolates.

Launched in December 1999, the site opened with little fanfare
and almost no promotion. Yet within a week, the orders began to
come in.

What started off as a side job became a full-time occupation
for this husband and wife team. They diligently check their e-
mail, and make sure each order is properly prepared and delivered
within the promised time. There were a few early gaffes such as a
late delivery but the Junaedhie's always make sure that the
customer is satisfied with the follow-up. The customer, they say,
is always king!

One time, they received a complaint that the flowers delivered
were ugly. Concerned, they tracked and called up the recipient to
ask her if the flowers were indeed in poor condition. Laughing,
she apologized and said that she was upset with the sender and
told him they were ugly just to stop him sending any more
flowers!

From the beginning, Kurniawan knew that he was not going to be
competing with other florists. Indoflorist is a delivery service.
Partnered with various floral suppliers in 20 Indonesian cities
and some other parts of the world, he hopes to maintain high
standards of customer service. If the customer is not satisfied,
he will exchange what has been delivered for a new arrangement or
offer a refund.

Before entering a joint venture with any supplier, a "fit and
proper test" is conducted to ensure that Indoflorist customers
will not be disappointed. Kurniawan says that it is pointless to
seek quick profit at the expense of their reputation.

As Indoflorist grew, Kurniawan got calls from friends and
customers to launch a site in Indonesian with rupiah prices. He
relented and launched the wholly Indonesian language Indokado.com
in January 2000. Offering the same competitive prices and items,
Indokado accepts bank transfers and payments from Bank Central
Asia (BCA) ATMs, as these have proven to be popular alternatives
to credit card payments.

Kurniawan himself designed and created the site, and for
months the business has been a family affair, just himself and
his wife. They recently added their first member of staff (only
one person) to help answer the phone and reply to e-mails. For
them, good service is imperative and all e-mails must be answered
within 24 hours, if not sooner.

Both websites are profitable in contrast to other e-commerce
businesses that are still languishing in the red. But,
Indoflorist continues as a nice Small and Medium Enterprise
(SME), the businesses that form the backbone of the economy. With
a relatively small start up capital (2 domain names, hosting
services and continuous Internet access), the Junaedhie's have
managed to create a small network of flower and gift shops in
Indonesia.

In the end, they had to establish a small workshop to maintain
inventory. Some holidays (like Valentine's Day) can raise the
price of roses by 75 percent! By ensuring they have adequate
supplies, they can maintain the availability and price of the
flowers.

In the end, what was an experiment in e-commerce became a
viable small business. Indoflorist is a good example of small
business going online. Kurniawan frets about server downtimes as
he recognizes it as a loss of service for his clients. The
holidays always bring out more people to the net. Have you found
a present for your Valentine yet? (vmahmud@yahoo.com)