Olshop Is A Solution For MSMEs To Survive The COVID-19 Pandemic

JAKARTA - The suggestion to do activities at home in order to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 has an impact on decreasing community buying and selling activities. Thus, many business actors, especially MSMEs who sell conventionally, lose their income because there are few buyers.

However, there are solutions that can be done by MSME actors to be able to maintain their economy. Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki said they could switch to selling their wares via online or online shop (olshop).

"Online sales are now a solution for MSMEs who can still run their business to continue to market their products according to the COVID-19 prevention protocol," said Teten at a press conference at Graha BNPB, East Jakarta, Tuesday, April 28.

Based on the results of research by the UI Institute for Economic and Community Research (LPEM) explained by Teten, the business sector that has the potential to gain huge profits is the sale of health and herbal products.

In addition, food products such as vegetables, fruits, practical processed foods, and cooking spices also have the potential to sell well in the market.

"Currently, people cook at home more often. So, there is a lot of demand for ready-to-process products, such as frozen food or canned food that just needs to be heated," he explained.

This is in line with the increasing trend in online buying and selling platforms such as Bukalapak. The buying and selling of health products there increased by 90 percent and food increased 350 percent.

Likewise with the buying and selling trend data on Tokopedia. Many new seller accounts sell health products such as masks, hand sanitizers, and vitamins. The increase was 250 percent.

"This shows that the effectiveness of e-commerce or sales in the online market is quite effective. Therefore, I invite all cooperatives and SMEs to take advantage of digital technology to solve marketing problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he added.