Chilibeli introduces a special B2B platform called Chilimart targeting micro-entrepreneurs. Chilibeli was previously known as a community-based social commerce platform.
Chilibeli’s B2B Sales Manager Novel Leonardo explained that Chilimart has actually been operating since December last year. Chilimart was first designed to reach SMEs.
“The point is, we want to help MSMEs with Chilimart in terms of supply chain process and availability,” Novel said in a virtual press conference (26/8).
Based on the data collected by Chilibeli , there are nearly 65 million SMEs existed in Indonesia. Of this number, 63 million of those are called micro-enterprises. In other words, this micro-business has a central role in the domestic economy.
Entering the B2B segment
Through Chilimart, they are targeting micro-businesses such as vegetable shops, food stalls, grocery stores as their markets. They claim the products sold on the platform are very affordable because they go through a more efficient process including getting first hand supplies.
“Chilimart can directly take from the first hand, with the farmers or the main supplier so that we can get cheaper prices,” added Novel.
Chilibeli’s entrance into the B2B platform means to stir up the fierce battle in the online grocery vertical. Several other players have already implemented this model, including TaniHub and Kedai Sayur.
Novel explained the differentiation of Chilimart from its competitors is that its products are multi-segmented. That means Chilimart does not only provide food such as vegetables and meat but also fruits, instant food and drinks, spices, staples, to health and hygiene products.
In addition, Novel guarantees that their platform can deliver early in the morning as long as confirmation of orders can be made before three in the afternoon. “We invest in our logistics team, therefore, we can run at such hours,” he explained.
Side to side operation
Chilibeli claims Chilimart currently has 10,000 users from all of their operational areas, from Jabodetabek, Surabaya, Gresik, Sidoarjo, and Bandung. Especially in Jabodetabek, users are claimed to be around 6,000 users.
Nevertheless, Novel highlighted the fact that Chilimart complements the Chilibeli ecosystem. It means, they still maintain the concept of community-based social commerce.
“We are still social commerce after all. You could say we are still going both ways. There is a special team dedicated to the two businesses,” concluded Novel.
In addition, Chilibeli also collaborates with Lazada. It has been ongoing since last June. Through this collaboration, Chilibeli can distribute their food ingredients on the Lazada platform. The available food ingredients include vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, and salted fish.
“Chilibeli is collaborating with Lazada to provide easier access for our customers. Since joining Lazada, Chilibeli has served hundreds of new customers with an increase of more than 1,500 orders in the last 3 months,” Chilibeli’s B2C Commercial Manager, Fintia said in a written statement.
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
