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)