Tokopedia Marketing Strategy to Compete among the Marketplace Competition
Muhammad Hibban – President University
PT Tokopedia considered as one of Indonesia’s marketplace company that has the fastest growing by now. Tokopedia allowed people, small businesses, to manage their products and store through internet and allowed customers to have comfort way to do online shopping (Repository UMY, n.d.). The vision of Tokopedia is to established the better Indonesia through internet.
Figure 1.1 Tokopedia CEO and Brand Ambassador (Sources: https://www.teknovidia.com/)
Tokopedia established on August 17, 2009 by William Tanuwijaya and Leontinus Alpha Edison, become a subsidiary company under the auspices of PT. Tokopedia. first funding come from PT Indonusa Dwitama, and through the years of their existence Tokopedia successfully gain the investor which come from Ventura Global such as East Ventures (2010), Cyber Agent Ventures (2011), Netprice (2012), and SoftBank Ventures Korea (2013) (Repository UMY, n.d.).
The most interesting part of the establishment of Tokopedia is the background of the stories. Indonesia has almost 17,000 islands that extends from Sabang to Merauke that considered has a big amount of natural resources which also has high economic value (Roihan, 2022). Most of traders distributed their products just in the capital city, by this the economy growth point just placed in one specific place, which this case lead to the lack of infrastructure, economy growth in the small town in Indonesia (uneven distribution of the economy).
From this conditions, both of William T. and Leontinus A.E. think about a solution to provide platform or products that could help the traders receive the equal opportunities to sell their products (Roihan, 2022). In the first twelve years of Tokopedia, it encourage people to eradicate inequality in their environment, also supported, educated, and gave motivations to the sellers to go sell their products online on Tokopedia as their platform.
According to the Roihan (2022), Tokopedia now becoming the first Indonesian company that are included in the portfolios of 2 giant investors, Softbank and Sequoia. More than just funding to companies, this is a national achievement that is the forerunner to the entry of more investors into the Indonesian start-up ecosystem. With this kind of successful we must be curious about what kind of strategy that Tokopedia might took for increasing their values, brand awareness, the purposes to the consumers, customers (both seller and buyer).
Husni and Wardhana (2021) Tokopedia itself used the framework of SWOT in analyzing what kind of marketing strategy that they should take for their businesses. The analysis of SWOT could identify factors, strength, opportunities, also could become a prevent tools in order to minimalize the failures that comes from weaknesses of the company.
Support Indonesia’s development with the benefits of the internet is one of Tokopedia's goals, following trends in social media is one of Tokopedia's marketing strategies to increase their existence among people in Indonesia. Tokopedia actively promotes the features they have and the products they sell, starting from Instagram, Tiktok, Tokopedia not infrequently also conducts Live on IG as a way to engage with its users. In running its business, Tokopedia does not forget to give appreciation to its users, one of which is by providing loyalty gifts for consumers who are always loyal to using Tokopedia as a platform for buying and selling. This is a good marketing strategy from Tokopedia, because with the appreciation given, the level of use and also the loyalty of customers who use this platform will increase because they feel there are benefits they get from using Tokopedia. (MTarget, 2018).
To attract users, Tokopedia also uses Brand Ambassadors such as Chelsea Islan (figure 1.1). Using a brand ambassador can influence many people to use a product, one of which is Tokopedia. Brand ambassadors are chosen based on the company's image and how the company wants to be seen by the public, the selection of Chelsea Islan as the Tokopedia brand ambassador is the right choice, because Chelsea Islan itself is considered to be one of the public figures who have a positive image in the eyes of the public. Women who are talented, have many achievements, have a beautiful face, and also always support things that have a positive influence, for example, she supports economic equality in various regions in Indonesia (MTarget, 2018). Tokopedia also often participates in events such as Harbolnas (Hari Belanja Online Nasional), it is not uncommon for Tokopedia to provide discounts, flash sales, cashback, and free gifts for its users, this is what makes Tokopedia's development grow rapidly in Indonesia (MTarget), 2018).
Here is the conclusion from the discussion of Tokopedia marketing strategy. Tokopedia comes-up with the fresh idea in order to support small businesses and minimalize uneven economic growth in Indonesia. Start from this issue, Mr. Tanuwijaya & Mr. Edison established Tokopedia with hope the platform could help all the sellers from all over Indonesia could have the exact same opportunities to sell their products through internet.
In order to promote their existence in Indonesia, Tokopedia start to analyze their strength, weaknesses with SWOT framework. From this analysis, Tokopedia has several strategic marketing such as Maximizing the used of their Social Media, engage with the customers and users through social media, and then Tokopedia always give appreciation for their users (both buyers and seller), Tokopedia always give the loyalty gift also award for sellers that have been contributed well in Tokopedia. Furthermore, Tokopedia also used brand ambassador to attract the users. Brand ambassadors could show the image of the company (which in this case Tokopedia), and the choosen of Chelsea Islan as Tokopedia brand ambassador is the right choice because Chelsea Islan could show to the public the purpose of Tokopedia and could influence people to use Tokopedia as their support for small businesses.
REFERENCES
Husni M.A. & Wardhana A. (2021). Analisis strategi pemasaran Tokopedia di Indonesia. E-proceeding of management. 08. 02. Prodi Administrasi Bisnis, Fakultas Komunikasi dan bisnis. Universitas Telkom.
MTarget. (2018). 5 strategi marketing yang dilakukan Tokopedia. Retrieved from: https://blog.mtarget.co/
Repository UMY. (n.d.). Bab II: Deskripsi PT Tokopedia dan Komunitas. Repository UMY. Retrieved from: http://repository.umy.ac.id/
Roihan A. (2022). Profil dan sejarah perusahaan Tokopedia. Retrieved from: https://www.teknovidia.com/