Shift in Golden Hours: Sehri Time Now Becomes Peak Online Shopping Period
Ramadan does not only alter the eating and sleeping patterns of Indonesian society, but also completely reshape the map of online shopping (e-commerce) activity in Indonesia.
Lazada Indonesia has documented a drastic shift in the timing of consumer activity, with the sehri (pre-dawn meal) hour now becoming the busiest period for digital transactions.
Head of Business Growth & Operations at Lazada Indonesia, Amelia Tediarjo, revealed that shopping patterns during Ramadan differ significantly from ordinary days.
Whereas traffic typically peaks during working hours or leisure time at home, the main surge now occurs in the early morning hours.
“On normal days, activity might increase after people wake up, or when they arrive at the office, or for those at home after finishing their tasks. Now, the spike happens differently, because we see activity peaks at 3 AM, and then again at 7 PM,” said Amelia on Friday (27 February).
The emergence of a shopping surge at 3 AM represents a unique phenomenon. Consumers are utilising spare time during and around their sehri meal to browse the application and complete their shopping cart checkouts.
This pattern then declines during the morning hours and picks up sharply again at 7 PM, immediately after consumers complete their evening fast-breaking ritual.
The platform has quickly responded to this rhythm shift by adjusting its promotional momentum.
In the Lazada 3.3 Ramadan Mega Sale campaign, special offers and discounts of up to 95 per cent have been deliberately prepared to capture consumer enthusiasm during these specific hours.
Amelia explained that Lazada has anticipated this surge, particularly because this Ramadan period coincides with scheduled salary and Year-end Holiday Allowance (THR) disbursements.
This makes consumers more willing to conduct transactions for high-value items such as electronics and gadgets at times that would be unusual during normal days.
“We have indeed anticipated that sales of electronics, particularly large items and gadgets, will occur at this time because it is quite fortunate—salary and THR disbursements are relatively close together—so we have already started to see them ranking in our sales,” added Amelia.
To support this shift in behaviour, Lazada has also strengthened its service infrastructure, including artificial intelligence (AI) features to help local sellers manage surging traffic during these crucial hours, as well as the Once & Done customer service which is ready to assist even outside standard operating hours.