While e-commerce has been growing at a substantial pace in Indonesia, its effect of turning away shoppers from offline retailers is yet to be felt.
Malls still dominate the daily life of Indonesians, who prefer the experience of going to physical stores.
Demonstrating the strong grip that malls and offline stores have on the local market, Singapore-based company DominoPos Pte Ltd launched on Tuesday a real-time proximity marketing and digital media platform named GoToMalls.com.
Offering a comprehensive geo-located, profile-based smart directory of malls and stores in Indonesia, the website aims to enhance the online and offline business in shopping complexes by reviving offline transactions, bringing “the community’s spirit back to the malls through digital media support.”
“What we are doing with GoToMalls.com is actually assisting all the offline retail brands to publish their own call-to-action campaigns, promote their products or services on a digital platform and fully utilize their target audience,” GoToMalls.com CEO Bruno Zysman said.
The website provides its users with a comprehensive reference about shopping malls, stores and promotions. It lists up to 375 malls and shopping complexes, along with 19,000 stores.
To ease their entry into the Indonesian market, the site has partnered with telecommunications operator PT Indosat, also known as Indosat Ooredoo, and ride-hailing app provider Grab.
Aside from Indonesia, GoToMalls was deployed in DominoPos’ home country of Singapore in February. It also plans to expand into other countries.