IT product retail sales up 15% this year

IT product retail sales up 15% this year

The sales of Information Technology (IT) solutions and
services for the retailing sector in Indonesia is predicted to
reach US$80 million this year, an increase of about 15 percent
from around US$70 million last year.

Pawan Murari, the retailing unit chairman of PT Sejatibina
Delta Informatika (SDI) Technologies, said that next year the
sales would also grow at least 15 percent. More than 70 percent
of the sales would be for hardware and the rest for software.

SDI, an IT solutions and services provider, was founded in
1995 and has expanded to Australia, France, the U.S. and India.

"Actually the IT market for the retailing sector here is very
potential. There are 60 local retailers here. But most of them
have not yet applied to the IT solutions and services," he told
The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Pawan said that the local retailers had not realized the
importance of using that kind of technology in doing their
businesses. As a result, they cannot compete with the foreign
retailers, which have been flourishing during the last few years.

He cited the example of Carrefour, which had been in operation
here for four years but could compete with Matahari that has been
operating in Indonesia for 70 years. "This is because Carrefour
has applied the IT solutions and services from the beginning of
its operation. While the local retailers only do their retailing
businesses traditionally," he said.

He said that if the local retailers failed to use the IT
products then they would lose to the foreign ones, whose numbers
will increase as Tesco from France, Casino from France and Giant
from Malaysia will enter Indonesia this year.

According to him, by using the information technology the
retailers can actually cut their storing costs by 30 percent,
purchasing and selling costs by 15 percent. --JP