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