Discover How Indonesian Influencers Can Help Your Brand Stand Out on Tokopedia

Despite being the 2nd largest e-commerce platform in SEA region, not many people still know that Tokopedia is more popular than Shopee in Indonesia.

Unlike Shopee, Tokopedia caters to local and international merchants. The fact that Tokopedia is more popular than Shopee in Indonesia means that Indonesian shoppers prefer to spend their money on Tokopedia, making it even more attractive for foreigners wanting to reach Indonesian shoppers.

Tokopedia’s massive exposure in Indonesia can also be attributed to the platform’s local-only marketing strategy, as well as its local only payment method. Being an Indonesian platform means that Tokopedia has to take Indonesian culture and traditions into account. Thus, Tokopedia has launched marketing campaigns that align with Indonesian traditions and values, such as ‘Tokopedia Ramadan’ and ‘Tokopedia Merdeka (independence)’.

With that being said, influencer marketing is huge in Indonesia. Indonesian shoppers tend to trust recommendations from local influencers more than paid ads, which is why Tokopedia has used a multitude of Indonesian influencers to promote its own brand on the platform.

So if you’re an Indian marketer or brand who’s looking to penetrate the Indonesian market, Tokopedia is the perfect platform to invest your marketing budget on to reach and attract Indonesian shoppers, especially if you use local influencers to promote your product listings on Tokopedia.

Why Indonesian Influencer Marketing is Your Best Bet on Tokopedia

1. Indonesians prefer to shop on Tokopedia over Shopee: As stated above, Tokopedia is more popular than Shopee in Indonesia. 36.4% of Indonesian shoppers prefer shopping on Tokopedia while only 31.5% prefer Shopee. This trend is expected to continue as Shopee continues to have massive exposure in Indonesia, but still has to catch up to Tokopedia’s popularity.

2. Local influencers have a larger reach and engagement: Tokopedia has a feature called ‘Unggulan’ that allows merchants to increase their product visibility and thus increase sales. Since Tokopedia has limited ad placements, merchants must employ creative ways to attract shoppers and increase sales.

Indonesian influencers can help your Tokopedia listings rank higher in the ‘Unggulan’ section by promoting your listings to their followers. Due to the sheer number of Tokopedia users, Indonesian influencers experience a 4 to 5 times higher reach and engagement than influencers from other countries.

3. Indonesians trust recommendations from local influencers: Tokopedia itself has used a multitude of local influencers to promote its brand and listings on the platform. The fact that Tokopedia was able to get these influencers to use their own platform to promote their brand speaks volumes of Tokopedia’s trust and influence among Indonesians. In fact, local influencers often leave their other campaigns with international platforms to focus on Tokopedia alone.

4. Indonesian consumers prefer local influencers: According to a survey done by GfK, 85% of Indonesians prefer local influencers over foreign influencers because they’re better at communicating the local culture and values. This is especially true for Indonesian shoppers as Tokopedia caters exclusively to the Indonesian market.

5. Indonesians prefer local products: Indonesian shoppers prefer to buy local products over international products. This is one of the reasons why Tokopedia has taken the lead over Shopee in popularity. As such, even if your products are made in India, local influencers will be able to position your products as local, effectively allowing you to reach more Indonesian shoppers.

How to Start Influencer Marketing on Tokopedia

1. Choose the right Indonesian influencer to promote your listings: Your first step is to partner with the right Indonesian influencer who has access to your target audience.

There are several influencer marketing platforms to choose from that can help you find an Indonesian influencer or influencer agency that can help you penetrate the Indonesian market. Some examples include:

• Klear: Klear is a global influencer marketing platform that can help you find Indonesian influencers from various categories.
• Traackr: Traackr is another global influencer marketing platform that can help you find Indonesian influencers and agencies to work with.
• Upfluence: Upfluence allows you to search for Indonesian influencers based on your selected criteria.
• Influencity: Influencity is an influencer marketing platform that can help you find Indonesian influencers and manage your campaigns.
• Intellifluence: Intellifluence is an influencer marketing platform that can help you find and connect with Indonesian influencers.
• #Hashoff: #Hashoff is an influencer marketing platform that allows you to find and work with Indonesian influencers.
• Influencer Marketing Hub: This website provides a list of influencer marketing platforms that can help you find Indonesian influencers.

Most Indonesian influencers are very active on Instagram and TikTok, which are the most popular social media platforms in Indonesia.

2. Create your Tokopedia listing: Once you’ve selected your influencer, you’ll need to create your Tokopedia listing. If you’re not Indonesian and do not have an Indonesian address, you’ll need to create a Tokopedia account using a 3rd party service, such as “J&T Express” or “Raja Ongkir”.

You’ll also need to create a local Indonesian bank account to receive funds from your sales. If you don’t have a local Indonesian bank account, you can use a payment processing service such as:

• Flutterwave: Flutterwave is a payment processing service that allows you to receive payments from Indonesian customers.
• Xendit: Xendit is a payment processing service that allows you to accept payments from Indonesian customers.
• DOKU: DOKU is an Indonesian payment processing service that allows you to accept payments from Indonesian customers.
• Midtrans: Midtrans is a payment processing service that allows you to receive payments from Indonesian customers.
• iPaymu: iPaymu is a payment processing service that allows you to accept payments from Indonesian customers.

3. Provide your listings to your influencer: Now that you’ve created your Tokopedia listing, it’s time to provide your Tokopedia listing URLs to your selected influencer. Inform them how you’d like them to promote your listings, whether they should include them in their Instagram stories or TikTok videos.

4. Track your sales: The final step is to track your sales through your Tokopedia account. You can also ask your influencer to send you screenshots of their analytics to see how many clicks or engagements their promotions generated.

Conclusion

Tokopedia is a Indonesian-only e-commerce platform that has overtaken Shopee’s popularity among Indonesian shoppers. This makes Tokopedia the ideal platform for foreigners to reach Indonesian shoppers.

With influencer marketing being a massive trend in Indonesia, using Indonesian influencers to promote your products listings on Tokopedia will help you stand out from the competition.

If you would like to learn more about influencer marketing in Indonesia, you can check out our blog here.