Nurhadi's Story, Successfully Develop a Culinary Business through Digital Economic Transformation

Photo: Special

JAKARTA - The digital economic transformation has opened up opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs again. Nuryadi, a former Grab driver partner, has now managed to develop the Baso Aci Mastyo culinary business with sales of dozens of servings per day, mostly through digital platforms.

The man, who is familiarly called Mas Nur, started his journey as a driver partner in 2019. From the activity of delivering orders, he saw the trend of the growth of food delivery services which are increasingly sought after by the public.

"From there I saw that the opportunity for online-based culinary businesses was quite large," said Mas Nur.

He had pioneered a fruit salad business when the trend for healthy food increased. However, changes in market tastes during the COVID-19 pandemic made him switch to more popular menus, such as seblak and baso aci.

In 2020, he founded Baso Aci Mastyo. Relying on a digital platform, this home business is now able to sell around 70-80 portions per day, with around 90 percent of transactions coming from online orders.

Mas Nur also utilizes digital promotion features such as advertising and shipping subsidies to expand market reach.

This strategy is considered effective in increasing visibility in the midst of fierce competition in the online culinary business.

"If there is no digitization, our market is very limited. Now customers can be from a more distant location," he explained.

Although it opened two branches, market adjustments made it focus on one main outlet with a digital-based strategy.

This story shows how digitization is able to encourage small business players to upgrade and expand the market.