Jakarta, Aug 5 (Antara) - Online trading system or e-commerce is growing rapidly in recent years as it offers a special service for consumers to shop or order goods through online media.
But how far online business affects retail business still needs further study. Head of National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Bambang Brodjonegoro has expressed the need to officially register online trading transactions.
Data on online trading transactions is needed to know their impact on the economic growth, especially at a time when the retail business sector is facing a gloomy condition amid efforts to improve the macroeconomic indicators.
There are mixed views that the growth of online shopping is posing a threat to the retail business, but some say it would not have a serious impact on retailers as long as the latter continue to make innovations.
According to macroeconomist Dr James Adam of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the online trading transactions, which are gaining a popular trend in recent days, is threatening workers at retailer businesses, which are still relying on the conventional shopping system.
It is evident with the sacking of about 2 thousand workers when 7-Eleven stopped its operation in Indonesia. This poses a problem on how to channel workers who lose jobs so that they would not create unrest.
"Can thousands of retailer workers who have been laid off be channeled to the outlets of the large-scale hypermarkets or supermarkets?" Adam questioned.
In the face of this situation, according to the IFAD economists, retailer businesses admitted they are facing difficult conditions with the presence of online shops. This leads retailers to cut workers for the decline of transactions carried out directly at the retailer outlets.
However, Adam is also of the view that online trading phenomenon is not a threat to the malls. It can even bring fortunes if opposite synergy is built. "Obviously, online trading is a threat to conventional shopping centers. In business term, they should make innovations and strategic business revision and competitiveness," Adam said, adding that in that way, social media apps could be maximized to promote shopping centers.
Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita noted that shopping centers, such as malls and supermarkets, need to make innovations in order to survive amid the increasing trend of online shopping.
"It should be noted that shopping center owners need to make innovations. A number of shopping centers in Indonesia have made changes where there are integrations regarding the tenants, food courts, and cinemas, for example.
In the trade minister's view, retail market industry with physical shops still could grow due to the fact that there are still market preferences where consumers want to see the physical conditions of goods first.
He admitted, however, that the development of online shops, which are said to increase by about 25 to 50 percent, could not be halted. Yet, in a number of big cities such as Jakarta, the drop in the sales of the retail market is not too sharp. This is partly due to the mushrooming of retail market which provides places for visitors to hang out.
"The decline is not too sharp, such as in Jakarta, because consumers also need a place to hang out. But we will conduct a study to know the types of market whose visitors are declining," Lukita remarked.
General Chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), Roy N Mandey, remarked that sales activities of the growing online trading transactions cannot yet grab the retailer markets which have physical shops.
"We have admitted that online market is part of the lifestyle of youngsters, yet several retailers have joined forces and gone online to offer their goods on the Internet. The change of this type is a must and should be followed," Mandey pointed out.
He stated that the decline in sales of retail market in 2017 is not yet significant, namely about 2 percent, with a growth projection that is at least 9 percent or similar to last year.
What is important now, according to Bappenas Head Bambang Brodjonegoro, is the online trade transactions needed to be registered officially for statistics.
Statistics on online trading transactions is an important issue. It is needed to know the impact of the online trading system on the economic development.
"It should not look at the importance of the taxation aspect first. It is the data recording which is very important," Brodjonegoro said in Jakarta on Friday.
Hence, the Bappenas chief asked the Central Board of Statistics (BPS) to improve the mechanism of data registration of the online transactions, both in terms of gross domestic product and consumption.
"We can explore online companies. They, of course, use expedition firms from where the growth of the business could be revealed. It could reflect the growth of the online transactions. Their data now is not yet recorded. Our statistics is still about data on retailers and wholesalers. We need the change made in connection with the online transactions," remarked Brodjonegoro.
He expressed hope that online trading system would be included in the formal sector, it should not remain as a business in the informal sector. Brodjonegoro who is a former finance minister, supported the increasing number of online trading businesses in the country.
"The important thing is that it is recorded in the statistics. Fairness principle is needed. Thus, it also needs to pay tax," Brodjonegoro noted.
Based on data at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the online trading transactions or e-commerce reaches a value of Rp200 trillion. Now, users of internet in Indonesia account for 93.4 million people and users of smart phones total 71 million, who are all potential market shares for online businesses.
***3***(A014/INE/S012)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/Suharto) 05-08-2017 21:47: |
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