Indonesian e-commerce firm Blibli launched its first offline store, called BlibliMart, in central Jakarta on Tuesday.
The shop practices cashless and cashier-less concepts. It lets customers pick up and check out items on their own by scanning product barcodes using the Blibli app, then pay via Bliblipay or GoPay. Even so, given that unmanned stores are still a new phenomenon in Indonesia, Blibli still employs shopkeepers to assist people with transactions.
The BlibliMart store is a result of Blibli’s 2020 strategy, which binds together three elements: strengthening supply chain management, providing innovative services according to customers’ needs, and enhancing the omni-channel retail experience.
BlibliMart stores mostly carry fast-moving consumer goods. Before the company launched its brick-and-mortar store, BlibliMart was a feature on Blibli’s e-commerce site. At the time, BlibliMart offered users a way to shop in Alfamart and Alfamidi convenience stores with its Click & Collect function—ordering via Blibli’s website, paying online, then picking up the merchandise at Alfamart or Alfamidi stores.
Omni-channel retail, which integrates online and offline sales and marketing, has becoming increasingly popular in Indonesia in the past two years, with several e-commerce companies pursuing this strategy.
JD.com’s Indonesian subsidiary JD.id was the first company to establish an unmanned store in Indonesia, called JD.ID X, in 2018. Another company that is also building an omni-channel presence is beauty e-commerce platform Sociolla, which opened its first physical store in 2019.