Heaptalk, Jakarta — Indonesia’s Bukalapak announced the cessation of selling physical products in its marketplace as part of a strategic shift toward virtual products. This transition aligns the company’s focus with the growing demand for digital services and products.
Effective February 9, 2025, Bukalapak will no longer accept orders for physical products across categories such as household goods, personal care, gadgets, sports equipment, fashion, office supplies, tickets and vouchers, and food items. The company has assured its sellers, known as Pelapak, that comprehensive support will be provided to facilitate a smooth transition.
“We fully understand that this change will impact our sellers, and we are committed to making this transition as seamless as possible. We have prepared guidelines and steps to assist our sellers through this process, including settling balances, processing refunds, and downloading transaction data and sales history.” Bukalapak said on its official website.
In the future, Bukalapak will concentrate on offering a wide range of virtual products. These include prepaid credit, data packages, electricity tokens, postpaid electricity bills, Prakerja program services, Bukasend, credit installments, BPJS Health payments, water bills (PDAM), Telkom services, postpaid phone credit, cable TV and internet, property tax (PBB), government revenue, streaming vouchers, traffic fine payments, various tax payments, customs duties, BPJS Employment, BMoney, and digital gold vouchers.
Bukalapak has outlined several critical changes for sellers during the transition period:
- Deactivation of New Product Uploads: Starting February 1, 2025, the feature to add new products will be disabled. Sellers will not be able to list new items after this date.
- Order Management Completion: Sellers are advised to fulfill all incoming orders before the marketplace’s closure to avoid automatic cancellations.
- Automatic Refunds: Orders that remain unprocessed by March 2, 2025, at 11:59 PM WIB will be automatically canceled, and buyers will receive refunds via BukaDompet.
- Other Requirements: For fund withdrawals outside the specified dates, sellers are instructed to contact Bukalapak via email.
As of September 2024, the company with an issuer code of BUKA recorded a net loss attributable to the parent entity’s owners of about US$38 million, or approximately Rp545.97 billion. Management recognized that the third quarter had the lowest momentum for the company this year due to the seasonality of the business, which affects both the online-to-offline (O2O) and marketplace divisions.
The company has realized that its market has shifted substantially in the past three years, creating a very competitive dynamic. Bukalapak has experienced operational costs exceeding revenue contributions across various businesses, which is inconsistent with its long-term strategy of achieving profitability and sustainable growth.
