Didiet Maulana Surprised There Are Already Millions Of Batik MSMEs Tembus Export Market With Shopee

Photo: Special

JAKARTA - The famous Indonesian fashion designer, Didiet Maulana, expressed his admiration for batik sellers in the country who are increasingly expanding their markets abroad. Didiet said this when he was a resource person at the Batik Masa Kini Story event, organized by Shopee to commemorate National Batik Day 2023.

"Really, as a fashion designer from Indonesia, one of my dreams is to disseminate batik as a cultural heritage of the archipelago into an important element in the development of world fashion trends. In fact, this has also been done by fellow MSME activists in the country who use digital technology through Shopee," said Didiet, quoted Friday, October 6.

Monica Vionna, Head of Marketing Growth Shopee Indonesia, confirmed that batik sales from year to year have indeed increased.

"Based on the data we have, the more we come here, batik sales are increasing, not just depending on certain moments. Throughout 2023 alone, millions of batik fashion products made by local MSME colleagues have been successfully sold at Shopee, even abroad," explained Monica. Didiet also added that batik continues to develop both in terms of motive and styling.

"Maybe as we know that in the past batik was only used for formal events. So, why is batik increasingly popular with today's society? Yes, because he continues to evolve both in terms of increasingly diverse motives, and also his way of using or styling which makes batik even more attractive," he added.

This fashion designer describes several modern motifs that have become a trend in the world of batik fashion.

One of the motifs that is currently popular is the abstract motif that combines various geometric elements and non-traditional forms. This motif gives a more contemporary impression and is suitable for use in everyday style. In addition, floral motifs with bright colors are also an attractive choice to appear fresher and more excited, as owned by this Damakara batik," said the founder of IKAT Indonesia.

One of the MSME actors who attended the Batik Masa Kini Story event was Dini Prihastiti, the owner of the Damara brand. Damakara is a brand from Bandung which is one of the sellers of batik who has succeeded in developing its business through the Shopee marketplace platform.

"So my husband and I, Bheben, built the Damakara in 2019, inspired by Iris Grace, a child with special needs who expresses himself through painting and his painting is considered good by the curator, inspired by this we also work together to collaborate with children with special needs. Then in 2020, the effort that we have just established is quite stagnant, due to the pandemic. Finally, we try to go digital through Shopee, and thank God until now it still exists and continues, "said Dhini.

As an MSME activist, Dhini feels that Damakara must continue to develop, to be able to continue to help children with special needs.

"Damakara, it's social business, at first we didn't sell on the marketplace, but we started to think, even though this is social business, Damakara must still be big. Over time, customers ask for transactions via Shopee because it's easy. Finally, we learn what kind of sales in Shopee is like? And after that we feel our business is much more growing, up to 770 percent increasing turnover," added Dhini.

Dhini also admitted that after plunging into the world of e-commerce, the market share of Damakara products expanded to cover all of Indonesia and even abroad. The brands founded by Dhini Prihastiti and Bheben Oscars were even sold to Malaysia, Singapore, to Taiwan.