Why Indonesian SMEs Are Moving From Tokopedia to Their Own Website

Indonesia's E-Commerce Market: Massive, Crowded, and Increasingly Competitive

Indonesia is Southeast Asia's largest e-commerce market. According to the Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2024 report by Momentum Works, Indonesia's total Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) reached US$53.8 billion in 2023 — accounting for 46.9% of the region's total US$114.6 billion GMV.

Shopee leads with a 40% market share, followed by Tokopedia at 30%, Bukalapak at 11%, TikTok Shop at 9%, Lazada at 7%, and Blibli at 4%. These figures make clear just how dominant marketplace platforms are within Indonesia's digital economy.

Yet behind these impressive numbers, a critical question is emerging among SME owners: Is selling exclusively on marketplaces a sustainable long-term strategy?

The Marketplace Dependency Trap: Risks Hiding in Plain Sight

Platforms like Shopee and Tokopedia offer instant access to millions of buyers. A 2024 INDEF study found that Shopee is the most widely used platform among Indonesian SMEs — selected by 50% of surveyed businesses — and that 88.37% of SMEs that digitalized their operations experienced an increase in average annual revenue. These are genuinely encouraging numbers.

But there is a less visible side to the equation that deserves serious attention.

Escalating Fees and Commissions

Marketplaces charge sellers in multiple ways: per-transaction commissions, advertising costs (Shopee Ads, Tokopedia TopAds), service fees, and revenue cuts from free-shipping subsidy programs. As your business scales and transaction volume grows, these cumulative costs can significantly erode profit margins. For SMEs already operating on thin margins, this is not an administrative inconvenience — it is a genuine threat to long-term profitability.

The Race-to-the-Bottom Price War

Because marketplace consumers can compare seller prices in a matter of seconds, there is relentless downward pressure on pricing. Shopee, in particular, is designed as a promotion-heavy, gamified platform that encourages impulse buying driven by discounts and time-limited deals. This creates an environment where brand differentiation is difficult to sustain, pushing sellers to compete on price rather than value — a battle that rarely ends well for independent SMEs.

Unpredictable Algorithm Changes

Product visibility on marketplaces is entirely governed by platform algorithms. Policy shifts, ranking system updates, or the aggressive entry of new competitors — including Chinese brands increasingly dominant on TikTok Shop — can dramatically reduce your product's exposure without any prior notice. A business built over years of hard work can be destabilized by a single platform policy change.

You Don't Own Your Customer Data

This is perhaps the most underappreciated risk. When you sell on Tokopedia or Shopee, all buyer data — names, addresses, purchase history, and product preferences — belongs to the platform, not to you. This means you cannot run direct remarketing campaigns, build a meaningful loyalty program, or send personalized communications to your own customers.

The Case for Owning Your Digital Real Estate

A self-owned business website gives you complete control over the customer experience and your business data. Here is a direct comparison:

With your own website, you build a long-term digital asset. Every visitor arriving via Google Search, social media, or paid advertising enters your ecosystem — not a marketplace's. You can collect customer emails, run membership programs, and cultivate deeper, more durable relationships with your buyers.

Beyond functionality, a well-managed website is a brand trust engine. Tokopedia has built a strong reputation for credibility in high-consideration purchases through features like product reviews and seller ratings — but that trust attaches to the Tokopedia ecosystem, not to your brand name. An owned website transfers that trust directly to you.

The Hybrid Strategy: Marketplaces for Acquisition, Website for Retention

This is not an argument for abandoning marketplaces entirely. The smartest approach is a hybrid strategy — deploying both channels with distinct, complementary roles.

Research from iCrossboardJapan (2026) concludes that Shopee and Tokopedia serve different moments in the customer journey: Shopee is effective for capturing attention and driving impulse purchases, while Tokopedia plays a stronger role in building trust for high-consideration buying decisions.

Within a hybrid framework, the strategy works as follows:

1. Acquisition via Marketplaces — Use Shopee and Tokopedia to reach new buyers who are not yet familiar with your brand. Leverage paid ads, flash sales, and Shopee Live for maximum visibility and discovery.
2. Bridge to Your Website — Include exclusive offers, special vouchers, or membership benefits accessible only through your official website. This creates a tangible incentive for customers to migrate to a channel you fully control.
3. Retention via Owned Channels — On your website, run email marketing, push notifications, loyalty reward programs, and personalized content based on individual purchase history. This is your long-term competitive moat — one that is extremely difficult for competitors to replicate.

In this model, marketplaces become your acquisition funnel, and your website becomes your retention engine.

Getting Started with an Owned Website in Indonesia: Practical Steps

Building a business website does not need to be expensive or technically daunting. Here is a practical roadmap:

1. Choose the right platform. For SMEs that prioritize ease of management, WordPress + WooCommerce is a widely proven choice. For businesses requiring deeper customization and greater scalability, a custom-built platform on Laravel is a worthwhile long-term investment.
2. Register a local domain (.id or .co.id). A local domain builds trust with Indonesian consumers and strengthens your rankings on Google.co.id.
3. Use a reliable local hosting provider. Select hosting with servers physically located in Indonesia to ensure optimal loading speed for local users — page speed is a critical conversion factor.
4. Integrate local payment gateways. Support the payment methods most popular in Indonesia: bank transfers, QRIS, digital wallets (GoPay, OVO, DANA), and buy-now-pay-later solutions (Akulaku, Kredivo).
5. Optimize for mobile from day one. More than 70% of Indonesian internet users access the web via smartphone. A non-mobile-optimized website will lose the vast majority of its potential visitors before they even see your products.
6. Build SEO from the start. Research keywords relevant to your products and create content that directly answers the questions your potential buyers are asking. Organic SEO is a compounding investment that delivers long-term returns without ongoing cost-per-click.

Closing: Time for Indonesian SMEs to Own Their Digital Home

Marketplaces are a remarkable gateway into Indonesia's digital market. But relying on them exclusively means building your business on ground you do not own. Platform policy shifts, rising fees, or competitive shocks — such as TikTok Shop's sudden closure and relaunch under new ownership in 2023 — can destabilize a business built over years of consistent effort.

Your own website is a strategic investment. It is not simply about having a presence on the internet — it is about building a digital asset you can control, optimize, and grow on your own terms. In Indonesia's increasingly competitive and uncertain e-commerce landscape, SME owners who combine the reach of marketplaces with the freedom of an owned website will hold a competitive advantage that is far more durable than any platform ranking.

References

• Momentum Works. (2024). Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2024. Reported by CNBC Indonesia, 19 July 2024. https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/tech/20240719115730-37-556038/tokopedia-tiktok-kalah-jauh-lawan-penguasa-ecommerce-ri
• INDEF. (2024). Peran Platform Digital Terhadap Pengembangan UMKM di Indonesia. https://indef.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Izzudin-Al-Farras-INDEF-Hasil-Studi-INDEF-Peran-Platform-Digital-Terhadap-Pengembangan-UMKM-di-Indonesia.pdf
• iCrossboardJapan. (2026). Shopee and Tokopedia: Inside the Indonesia Online Marketplace. https://www.icrossborderjapan.com/en/blog/asian-marketing/shopee-tokopedia-indonesia-online-marketplace/