Since the first partial lockdown in Indonesia was eased in early June, the Covid-19 crisis has not shown any signs of improvement. As the number of daily new cases increased in late August, the government imposed a second round of regional lockdowns including the nation’s capital, Jakarta. The reinforcement of socioeconomic restrictions has brought about a bleak outlook on economic recovery.
This report uncovers how local consumer demand has shifted during and after the first lockdown, by analysing 4,300 data points from April to September 2020 across 10 homegrown womenswear brands retailing on Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest online shopping site.
These 10 brands are:
Key findings and actionable insights presented here aim to support brands in navigating the newly imposed restrictions and prepare for post-lockdown recovery.
All data used in this report comes from products retailing online as tracked by Omnilytics, unless otherwise mentioned.
Indonesia’s consumer confidence index fell in May as more than 1.79 million people went into unemployment during the partial lockdown.
The 10 brands experienced a sharp decline in sell-out rates once partial lockdown restrictions began in April, falling from a strong 26% to just 5%.
Once the initial shock wore off, performance then gradually improved. Eid, one of the largest celebrations in Indonesia, served as a turning point for consumer recovery. Sell-out peaked and continued to rise steadily after the event. By the end of the partial lockdown in June, sell-out rates were twice compared to the initial performance.
After restrictions were eased, sell-out rates continued to rise steadily. In the week before the second lockdown was imposed, sell-out almost returned to its normal average at 21%.
Consumers’ initially reduced spending at the beginning of the lockdown but cautiously resumed after the highly anticipated Eid celebration, despite strict travel restrictions.
The 10 brands in Tokopedia had a strong sell-out performance at full price overall, from April to September. Although, 72% of the products found were discounted during the same period.
The number of SKUs sold at full price increased with a small peak (Chart 3), following the Eid celebration in May. Trade movement improved greatly with sell-out rates surpassing 30% in August and September.
The categories with the highest sell-out count for full price items were Tops, Dresses and Pants & Leggings.
These top three categories were unchanged from pre-lockdown conditions, indicating that there was no major shift in consumer demand amidst the lockdown.
The top subcategories with high sell-out counts were Blouses, Shirts, Shift Dresses and Slim & Straight Leg Pants.
Most replenished SKUs displayed minimalistic styles with relaxed and loose silhouettes, following the work from home (WFH) trend in the new normal.
The popular colours were core, namely white and black. Seasonal colours consisted of neutral and earthy tones.
A closer look at the sell-out performance by discount range revealed that markdowns with a high product count did not drive sell-out. The most common discount range at 10-19% with a variety of products recorded a low sell-out rate of just 0.2% (Chart 6).
Discounts at the 50-79% range observed a similar pattern, with low average sell-out rates against high number of SKUs.
Conversely, strong sell-out performance across the 30-49% range showed a huge missed opportunity on the assortment offered.
The categories with the highest sell-out at discount were Tops, Dresses and Outerwear, which substituted Pants & Leggings in the previous section.
The best-performing SKUs had fitted silhouettes with waist ties, exhibiting a feminine look – straying away from the WFH styles.
