Supposedly, MSME Actors Should Be Able To Adapt To Marketing Innovations Online

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Center for Economic Policy Research (PPKE) of the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Universitas Brawijaya assessed that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) need marketing adaptation and innovation in line with the shift in consumer patterns from offline shopping to online.

A senior PPKE FEB researcher at Universitas Brawijaya Malang, East Java, Joko Budi Santoso, Thursday, October 12, said that with the shift from consumers who previously shopd offline and then switched to online, there needed to be a new breakthrough.

"There needs to be a new breakthrough in the form of revitalizing MSME development policies in the future," said Joko Budi, quoted from Antara.

The government, said Joko Budi, has stopped the TikTok Shop service which is considered to threaten the sustainability of MSMEs and people's markets, as well as outlets driven by small-scale business actors.

However, according to him, the closing step of the TikTok Shop does not necessarily encourage the acceleration of MSME players, including the people's market to move faster, thus requiring the revitalization of development policies.

"However, this does not necessarily encourage the acceleration of MSMEs to continue to revive so that revitalization of MSME development policies is needed," he said.

Joko Budi explained, in an effort to encourage the revitalization of the MSME development policy, in the short term it is necessary to optimize the existence of creative hubs in various regions in Indonesia into business incubation centers.

According to him, in the MSME business incubation, business actors will be given training and assistance to improve product quality, packaging, digital marketing, and facilitation to obtain product certification.

"In addition, in the incubation process, MSMEs are also facilitated to enter the capital network, raw materials, and marketing," he said.

He added that the revitalization program requires collaboration with various capital institutions, distributors, marketplaces, research institutions and universities for transfer knowledge and technology at an appropriate cost.

The revitalization of the MSME development policy, according to him, also needs to be accompanied by the strengthening of the domestic market which is very important to access to marketing of these products. In addition, strengthening access to foreign markets must also be carried out.

"The most important thing is how the government strengthens foreign markets through strengthening trade and tourism cooperation with regional-based partner countries such as ASEAN," he said.

TikTok Shop officially stopped trading on Wednesday, October 4 after the Minister of Trade Regulation No. 31 of 2023 stipulates that social commerce platforms will only facilitate the promotion of goods or services and are prohibited from providing payment transactions.