That life is tough for online book retailers is born out by Ekuator.com. After five years of operations, Ekuator.com stopped taking book orders through the internet last year. For Indonesia, Ekuator.com could be said to have had the most complete and most up-to-date website as it used to offer 5,000 tiles from more than 25 domestic publishers.
Most conventional bookshops, use online marketing services to complement their conventional marketing systems. When bookshop assistants are asleep at home, the shop can still take orders. Online shops can also be a useful promotional means for buyers who usually go to bookshops. As internet use increases many people now window shop first on the internet, which is becoming a kind of virtual yellow pages.
It is expected that bookselling in the virtual world will increase in frequency the coming years, following an increase in the number of internet users in Indonesia. This year, a local internet research institute estimates the number of internet users in Indonesia will increase by 100 percent to 20 million for 2005.
If 5 percent of them are book-lovers that will buy books online, this means there would be one million loyal buyers. Not a bad number. It might be time again for online book sellers to start studying the sucesses of Amazon.com. (Hartono Iggi Putro)
The Jakarta Post, March 15, 2005
