Lemonilo & The Other Side E-commerce: Developing UMKM Indonesia Armed with Data, Technology, and Local Wisdom

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta, Technology is not a close friend Tantiana, who is familiarly called Ana, a micro businessman Sentra Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) in Bantul, Yogyakarta.

Since 2005, Ana and several of the employees she trained themselves produce bottled VCO that she sells in Yogyakarta. Since the emergence of e-commerce, Ana also tried to fortune by selling online, as other has been done by other Micro, Small & Medium Business (UMKM).

However, it turns out to be successful in an e-commerce is not instant. For years, Ana's sales through e-commerce were not as high as she had hoped.

Apparently, then Ana realized, to be successful in the online world, SMEs need to have data to be able to predict which products are most sought after by prospective buyers. It is important to streamline the process of research, development and production.

However, unfortunately, most e-commerce today solve problems in terms of selling products to end consumers, and still offer less solutions to help SMEs in terms of improving the efficiency of product research and development, production and distribution processes.

Ana herself has just learned how to successfully sell online since meeting Lemonilo, an ecosystem that uses technology to curate, create and distribute healthy & natural products at affordable prices to the public.

From the outside, Lemonilo is an e-commerce that specializes in selling healthy and natural products. However, in fact from the inside, Lemonilo also utilizes data & technology to develop and produce useful products that people seek by embracing local SMEs.

Lemonilo becomes a solution for MSMEs to farmers who want to develop products based on data and technology, mainly in terms of research and distribution.

Based on research Lemonilo, it turns out that Indonesian people, especially in big cities, have a high awareness of the importance of consuming natural products to maintain health in their daily life.

Unfortunately, the current prices of healthy & natural products are still not affordable by many people so only certain circles who can reach it. In addition, this market is still dominated by imported products. This is where Lemonilo sees opportunities.

The mission of Lemonilo is only one, that is for the people of Indonesia can consume the best products and can feel the quality of life and happy, free from disease in the future, of course at affordable prices. On the other hand, Lemonilo also wants to embrace SMEs in Indonesia in order to develop original Indonesian products that have local wisdom value, high selling value, and in accordance with local and international market tastes, said Shinta Nurfauzia, CEO of Lemonilo.

Until now, Lemonilo has embraced more than 150 SMEs throughout Indonesia to sell in Lemonilo. Some of them are then embraced to develop joint products, for example Ana is invited to develop export-quality exported cold COC VCO products under the Lemonilo flag.

According to Lemonilo's team, the products that were jointly developed with UMKM-UMKM Indonesia not only target domestic market but also abroad.

I myself feel the benefits of working with Lemonilo, for example on turnover. Very different from the turnover I get in other e-commerce and in Lemonilo. At Lemonilo, we are guided to focus on making products that are well liked by the people so the results of market acceptance of our products are better and turnover is much higher, Ana said.

Ana herself apparently stopped producing after the 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta and last for 7 months due to internal revamping. When her business starts again, the sale of Ana had been quiet.

The uncertain situation and the lack of raw materials could make him undo the intention to continue his business. The offer of cooperation from Lemonilo came to give hope to the UMKM to keep it running.

"After 7 months we spent to make a total improvement, we began to rise to build the business; almost in unison with Lemonilo came to us. I feel lucky to get up with the support of Lemonilo," she said.

At the beginning of cooperation and production, Ana acknowledged that her business center had difficulties in fulfilling reservations made by Lemonilo. The underlying cause of this difficulty is the lack of unorganized workers and management.

To that end, Lemonilo tried to give some tips and input in terms of management to Mrs. Ana and team to be more maximal again in production process. For Ana, cooperation with Lemonilo is a form of trust for MSMEs that must be maintained, as well as a challenge to fix them.

"Lemonilo helps me in dealing with management issues to improve production efficiency. The schedule should be neatly written so that I can determine the target of how many liters are generated each day. To be able to fulfill the buyer's orders at Lemonilo, I decided to increase the workforce by almost double the original worker," Ana said.