Smart household buying: Let your fingers do the shooping

By Yudha Kartohadiprodjo

JAKARTA (JP): Sembako is the acronym of the day. It loosely means the nine basic commodities, which have appeared lately more on the streets than in the stores. But now, with the introduction of an alternative shopping method, sembako may be delivered to your front door, at reasonable prices.

The service is offered by DialMart and Bebita, two new firms offering the ease of shopping at your finger tips.

Both offer similar services: delivering groceries at warehouse prices to members who place orders through an automated phone line. Transactions are debited from members' bank account or credit card. The companies provide monthly catalogs which contain pictures of the groceries and order numbers.

Tini Hadad, chairwoman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said shopping by phone is not new -- harried homemakers often call up their local warung (corner store), whose owners they are quite familiar with, and have the goods delivered to their door. Television audiences have also been introduced to mail-order shopping.

The above companies, however, claim that they are the first to take orders for groceries by phone on a professional basis.

Ease of service and security are among the main selling points, targeted to middle to upper-class families with a busy lifestyle.

The trigger to set up the services was the crisis leading to soaring prices of groceries, and the scarcity, or fear of scarcity, following the riots, in which many large stores were burned down or looted.

"I know how difficult it is to go back and forth to supermarkets," said actress Lenny Marlina, DialMart's director.

Enny Hardjanto, founder of Bebita, said her target group is "working women" like herself, who have even less time to shop. "The crisis has provided (business) opportunities," said Enny, who quit a top job at Citibank to work at Bank Papan, before setting up Bebita, which stands for Belanja Bijak Rumahtangga, (Smart Household Shopping).

Indeed, shoppers would clearly remember that after long hours of queueing to try to buy expensive, hard to get groceries, there was then the risk of being robbed.

DialMart's commercial director, Sahat Parulian Siagian, said: "These items, such as rice and powdered milk, create a hassle for housewives because they are heavy to transport, even during normal times."

Automated and integrated database systems are optimized by the company. "In the future, we will compile a database of customers' preferences, so that they will not have to enter every single item code each time they want to order," Sahat said.

Currently, DialMart claims to have more than 500 items available in their catalog, supplied by 40 principals, who are the main distributors of household goods.

Yet at any given time, the only things you might see in the company's warehouse are items in transit. That is because the company is using a "Just In Time" distribution system. After DialMart's database receives orders from customers, the orders are pooled accordingly and forwarded to the principals, who will then deliver only the exact number of goods ordered for the day.

"Our main service is to become a channel for goods, straight from the principals to consumers. Consumers will benefit from our competitive pricing because of our low overheads," Sahat said, adding that the company would never have to pay for inventories and fees -- called fund costs -- charged to retailers.

The current unstable prices of commodities have partially been blamed on a complicated system of distribution, which proved vulnerable during the May riots. Typically, goods went through seven warehouses before reaching a household, involving distributors, subdistributors and others.

By cutting through this chain, Sahat said, the consumer could purchase commodities at distributor prices, and save up to 15 percent. While consumers would be happy, Sahat admitted he has received calls from some cooperatives asking him to stop the business. "But there was also one cooperative who wanted to buy from us," he said.

So, are we seeing a possible end to the weekly family trip to supermarkets, which have become a form of indoor recreation here?

Sahat said, "our company is not trying to totally replace the current shopping culture," only attempting to "modify" it.

The idea of shopping by phone is appealing to Pramudita, a career woman and a mother.

"The service should simplify things for us. I would not necessarily stop my habit of shopping at the supermarket every week but the purpose of these trips could be limited to buying fresh items. Worries about goods scarcity would be minimized through this system."

Many, like Pramudita, still buy groceries from traditional markets, a time-consuming exercise. Yet, many believe the above services would not replace the traditional market.

H.A. Paweney, chairman of the Indonesian Supplier and Distribution Association, agreed that the distribution service offered by the companies would ease fears of commodity scarcity. He said he supported every effort to overcome foodstuff supply shortage, and said the association wasn't worried about competition.

He said people would still need foodstuffs in small quantities and so, would still go to traditional markets. "The service has a different target group than traditional markets," he added.

Tini advised potential customers to compare prices before deciding to change their buying habit to shop by phone.

"Not only can you choose the freshest items in traditional markets, you can also combine the items you buy and haggle for the price," said Tini. Potential buyers are also cautious.

"We pay for the goods way before the items will be delivered, Unless we really trust the system, the service is a risky proposition," said Pramudita.

Once the economy has regained its vitality and customers have placed enough trust in them, both companies are planning to expand their business to nongrocery items, such as books.

Meanwhile, the managements hope consumers will modify their buying habit, to become more efficient and to become their targeted market.