Berrybenka Managing Director Danu Wicaksana also speaks up about their recent lay-off, and how it affects business
After hosting a series of pop-up store events in different Indonesian cities throughout the year, fashion e-commerce startup Berrybenka announced plans to set up a permanent brick-and-mortar store in early 2017.
“In Q1 2017, we also plan to set up permanent store in Jakarta, Medan, and other potential cities, [the stores will be] set up in a mall. The permanent store is expected to attract more new Berrybenka users,” Managing Drector Danu Wicaksana told DailySocial.
The startup has been including pop-up store as part of its online-to-offline (O2O) strategy in 2016. The startup has hosted eight events in Medan, Tangerang, Makassar, Bekasi, Semarang, Bandung, and Cibubur, with Jakarta being latest addition.
Also Read: Invest in a strong team right from the start: BerryBenka CEO to startups
“When we are hosting a pop-up store event, we receive many new customers that were not yet familiar with Berrybenka. After looking at our products in the pop-up store, they go straight into checking our site through desktop and app,” Wicaksana explains.
Berrybenka plans to continue on hosting its pop-up store events in 2017, claiming that the event helped to boost sales growth up to 300 per cent in each city.
In Indonesia, O2O seems to be a crucial marketing strategy for many e-commerce startups, with OLX also hosting similar events to introduce the idea of second-hand goods shopping to its audiences. Pop-up stores allow e-commerce startups to widen their reach, which is likely to be the reason why TV commercials remain a favourite medium for Indonesian e-commerce startups to introduce their service.
Also Read: Fashion e-commerce firm Berrybenka raises US$5M in Series B round
After the lay-off
Apart from offline stores, Berrybenka will also push for its own private label. According to Wicaksana, since its launch in March, the private label was able to contribute up to 50 per cent of income to the company. It is also believed to give Berrybenka an opportunity to differentiate its offerings in the highly competitive fashion e-commerce sector, though Rocket Internet’s Zalora is also known to have its own private label.
Wicaksana also touched the subject of the company’s recent lay-off. It was done in order to curb operational costs, which was mainly allocated to marketing costs and employee salary.
“We are aware that in order for business to run sustainably, companies need to consider its priorities, and laying off employees in several divisions is one example. From business perspective, Berrybenka is still going well and there is no drastic change. It is just that the lay-off needs to be done,” Wicaksana explained.
The post Berrybenka to launch brick-and-mortar store in early 2017 appeared first on e27.