Protection Of MSMEs Must Be Considered In Online Shopping Transactions

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Last year, Amazon reportedly planned to build an e-commerce market in Indonesia. However, a few days ago, the company made by Jeff Bezos was reportedly in trouble in the United States.

That's because, they use data from third party seller networks (third party data) to find out what best-selling items or products Amazon's products will compete with.

There needs to be rules that are fair and balanced to protect local merchants and MSMEs on online platforms, especially considering that they are one of the pillars that support the rotation of the economy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic as it is today.

Regarding this, the Chairman of the Indonesian E-Commerce Association (idEA) Ignatius Untung stated, if Amazon enters Indonesia by using data from third-party seller networks as is done in the United States, it will have a big impact on MSME players in Indonesia.

However, until now the association has not yet known the direction of Amazon opening in Indonesia, whether in the form of e-retail or a marketplace such as those run by e-commerce which has been established in Indonesia.

"So we don't know what form they (Amazon) want to run in Indonesia. Is it an e-retail or a marketplace? What is certain is that if they use data from third-party seller networks in running e-retail, there will be an impact on MSMEs in Indonesia. , "he said, Monday, April 27.

But what is clear, he said, the association has told all e-commerce that want to enter Indonesia, never use private label. The goal, he continued, was so that local MSME players could still run and not be matched by the many attacks that came from outside Indonesia.

"The government has not discussed private label either. Up to now, there are many e-retailers themselves or those who run private label in Indonesia. Like the giant e-retailer Matahari and so on, they are already private label in Indonesia," explained Untung.

Meanwhile, Economist Indef Enny Sri Hartati explained, if Amazon enters Indonesia using data from third-party seller networks, it will become exploiters or leeches for MSMEs in Indonesia. This is because they will copy a lot of the best and best-selling products that are marketed in Indonesia.

"So data from third-party seller networks is very important. Every data is also important. So if the data is used to imitate, it will have a bad impact on MSME actors in our country," said Enny.

Enny hopes that every e-commerce platform that is willing to open its investment in Indonesia will remain neutral and support the progress of local MSMEs that have grown and developed in Indonesia.