Electronic City in Indonesia takes shopping to the next level

Country Business Reports interviews and articles by Discovery Reports www.discoveryreports.com

When Ingrid Pribadi, president and CEO of Electronic City Indonesia, opened her first store in the Sudirman Central Business District in 2001, she introduced modern retailing of electronics products to Indonesia.

Amid a highly traditional market with limited product offerings, the first Electronic City stores gave Indonesian consumers a brand new concept combining comfortable shopping with an experienced approach that features more product choices and many value-added services.

“I was accustomed to Best Buy and Circuit City, and wanted to replicate the experience here in Indonesia,” Pribadi says. “We’ve come up with many initiatives that have remained to be the trend in the electronics business until today.”

As the country’s only publicly listed modern electronic retailer, the company is the first to offer zero-interest instalment plans and free fire, flood and storm insurance.

Strong inventory and logistics, meanwhile, allow Electronic City to offer premium services such as EC Express delivery within six hours, EC 24-hour repair service and EC Contract Service for regular maintenance. These offerings quickly caught on with Indonesian consumers.

Electronic City today has 69 outlets across Indonesia. Following Pribadi’s dual-branding concept, 16 of the stores are Electronic City outlets called red stores aimed at medium-income households. The remaining 53 stores are the bigger blue stores focused on middle- to high-income families.

Altogether, the outlets capture 45 per cent share of the combined modern electronic retail chain market for four product categories, namely, audio-video products, home appliances, mobile devices and gadgets, and information technology equipment and office supplies. These include brands such as Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi and JBL.

Electronic City keeps an open mind to work with major players in consumer electronics to grow the business, and collaborate with companies to build a solid e-commerce platform.

“The Indonesian market’s potential is huge,” Pribadi says. “If you are coming in with a proposed added value to the business, I’m all ears.”

Electronic City Indonesia
http://www.corp.electronic-city.com