I love to shop (well, who doesn’t?). But as much as I’d love to stroll around shopping malls, I grew very fond of online shopping. I still have to go to physical stores from time to time, to buy item that’s not available online, but for certain clothings, accessories, electronics, and other things, I prefer to scroll my tab and refresh my browser from the comfort of my livingroom.

It’s not just because it’s easy and convenient, but also because I don’t have to move my lazy ass anywhere, I don’t have to pay for gas or taxi fare, and the best part is I don’t have to face the goddamn Jakarta notorious traffic.

Over the past year, I spend more and more time at my favorite e-commerce site. Buying stuff I’m so lazy to find offline. Because sometimes even if I go to the biggest shopping mall, the specific item I want is not always available. I might as well search it online and then have it shipped to my place rather than groping every shop just to find something that isn’t there.

Believer vs nonbeliever

I have an acquaintance who doesn’t believe in online shop. That person thinks that going to a shopping mall is a form of recreation; seeing, touching, and trying the real stuff is what people buy, not just the product.

I personally think it’s bullshit. People want simplicity, convenience, and efficiency. If they can have it all in several clicks, then why the hell not (even if this starts the Wall-E universe, then so be it).

They want it all and they want it now

After the whole trip to Silicon Valley couple weeks ago, I found new thing in online shopping, where I met a couple delivery cars in downtown San Francisco: Amazon Fresh, eBay Now, and Google Shopping Express. 

Their service is to provide a same-day delivery for your everyday needs: groceries, electronics, home equipments from local shops in the neighborhood. So if you’re a busy person with no time to buy groceries or find a replacement for your broken lamp, they will go to the store, buy it for you, and hand it over your door in a few hours. How convenient is that? I would never get out of my home if there’s such a service, and I do really-really hope we can have something like this here.

Since we all pretty much a lazy-ass, I’m sure a lot of people want everything to be easy and fast.

Is it applicable here?

Of course, in San Francisco they have the advantage of relatively less traffic congestion than in Jakarta. Infrastructure is one problem they don’t really have, unlike here. But, it doesn’t mean that it is impossible. We are Indonesian, right? We make do with what we have (or don’t have).

Logistics and distributions is one of the obstacle we have here in e-commerce industry in Indonesia. As a matter of fact, it is one of the main issues for many industries here in the country. We have to rely on the old fashioned mail service such as PT Pos Indonesia, JNE, and such, or we have to have our own logistic teams.

Yes, yes, we used to have Go-jek, but it doesn’t really take off. Some other people also come up with bike messenger service, like something we see in the movie Premium Rush. But hey, ain’t the more the merrier?

So, anyone else wants to disrupt the logistics and distribution in Indonesia?