Indonesia’s unicorn marketplace Tokopedia has launched on Wednesday a new sharia-compliant service called Tokopedia Umroh focused on providing trusted Umrah travel packages to its customers.
Umrah is an Arabic word that means “visit” and is used to refer to the traditional pilgrimage to the holiest place for Muslims, the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Tokopedia Umroh is a part of the Tokopedia Salam ecosystem, a sharia-compliant section within the Tokopedia platform that hosts more than 700,000 merchants offering over 21 million Muslim-friendly products.
Tokopedia claims to be the first online marketplace that provides Umrah travels to its customers, while Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world.
Garri Juanda, head of Tokopedia Salam revealed that his company launched the new service to meet its users’ high demand for trusted Umrah agents online.
“We see that there is a challenge for Umrah travel agents to digitalize their information and access to their prospective customers. Therefore, as a marketplace, we provide a platform for certified travel agents to advertise their products for our millions of customers,” Juanda said in the press conference.
Currently, almost 20 certified travel agents have joined Tokopedia Umrah. Juanda said that the number of agents will grow substantially, considering that there are more than 900 Umrah travel agents registered at the Indonesian Minister of religion.
Tokopedia provides two payment options, including a full payment modality and a sharia-compliant installment plan up to six months.
Softbank Group-backed Tokopedia will collect a travel fee from each travel agent after concluding an Umrah travel transaction, the company said.
Juanda also said that Tokopedia Salam has experienced a 45% visitors growth from September until October 2019. He added that Muslim fashion is becoming one of the most wanted products by Indonesians, “needed by more than 85% of users”, without providing major details.