Indomaret's journey to become a household name in Indonesia

The number of their outlets have now reached more than 21,000 outlets across Indonesia.

PT Indomarco Prismatama, also known as Indomaret, is the ubiquitous store found in nearly every corner of the city, from residential neighbourhoods to office buildings and university campuses. This year, Indomaret is capitalising on the bright prospects for minimarkets in Indonesia and aims to add another 1,500 outlets to its existing 21,000.

According to DBS research, minimarkets are expected to grow faster than traditional markets and supermarkets in Indonesia due to their 24-hour accessibility and widespread locations in both urban and remote areas. Fitch Ratings also predicts that minimarket operators such as Indomaret will continue to grow in size through the expansion of their outlets.

One of the strategies Indomaret will implement to become ‘top of mind’ amongst shoppers is the development of its offline stores—Indomaret Regular, Indomaret Point, and Indomaret Fresh—and the integration of these stores with its online channels.

"Our goal is that shoppers can have all their needs met both in-store and online," said Marketing Communication Executive Director Indomaret, Bastari Akmal in an exclusive interview with Retail Asia.

Improve retail experience

In addition to Indomaret Regular, the company has established Indomaret Point which offers a variety of ready-to-eat and ready-to-drink products and seating areas for hangouts; and Indomaret Fresh, which provides fresh food products, frozen food, vegetable and fruits, premium, and imported products.

"We also add Point Coffee, an Indomaret subsidiary that applies the 'Grab&Go' concept to serve fresh coffee in Indomaret Fresh," said Bastari.

Several Indomaret Fresh outlets also have a drive-thru service, allowing customers to shop without leaving their vehicles. They can also place orders and payments at the counter and then switch to other counters to pick up their groceries.

With this concept in mind, Indomaret Fresh is one of the business lines that Indomaret prioritises developing. The company targets to establish Indomaret Fresh in locations with middle to upper socioeconomic levels, high traffic, large parking lots, and close proximity to main roads. The goal is to have 1,000 Indomaret Fresh outlets by 2023, up from the current 400 outlets.

In terms of online stores, Indomaret has launched Klik Indomaret. The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in 2020 have accelerated the shift towards online shopping.

According to Bastari, online shopping offers the advantage of being able to sell products in larger packages, which are limited in physical retail spaces. "Klik Indomaret also offers bulky items such as water gallons and liquefied petroleum gas that are not available on other e-commerce platforms due to shipping issues. However, with Klik Indomaret, customers can order water gallons with a guaranteed one-hour delivery from the nearest Indomaret anywhere in Indonesia, at low shipping costs," adds Bastari.

Indomaret records an average of 8 million daily transactions at its physical stores, whilst Klik Indomaret averages 3.5 million transactions per month.

To enhance the customer experience, Indomaret offers cross-selling promotions across its offline and online business lines. "Customers who shop online can earn rewards that can be redeemed when shopping offline and vice versa," says Bastari.

Big data development

Shopper data, whether collected from physical stores or online, will be merged into one large dataset. Bastari stated that the development of big data is Indomaret's newest business expansion step, which is still underway. "In the future, all promotions we conduct across various channels will stem from the data we have collected," he said.

Through big data, Indomaret will be able to determine the types of brands that consumers purchase. "For instance, there may be certain product suppliers who want to suggest product promotions or introduce their new products that are sold at Indomaret. We can assist them by sending WhatsApp blasts to consumers who have been historically recorded as having purchased or frequently buying these products," he said. To develop this big data, Indomaret is forming an IT team.

PT Indomarco Prismatama, the operator of Indomaret, is the largest profit contributor to its parent company, PT Indoritel Makmur Internasional Tbk. (DNET). According to the financial report for the third quarter of 2022, DNET recorded a total profit of $49.9m (IDR 750.27b) from its associates and joint ventures.

Of this total profit, Indomaret operator, PT Indomarco Prismatama, was the largest contributor with $46m (IDR 691.83b). This value has increased compared to Indomaret's profit in the third quarter of 2021, which amounted to $20.1m (IDR 302.43b).

This increase in profit share is attributed to Indomaret's growing performance. During January-September 2022, Indomaret's accumulated net sales reached $4.9b (IDR 74.34t), compared to the same period the previous year, which amounted to $4.4b (IDR 66.36t).

"In the future, we hope that when people mention minimarkets, they will think of Indomaret. To strengthen our branding, we have started by expanding our store count, and also by being active on the online side," said Bastari.