eBay are to open up an office in Indonesia, indicating what we’ve known for some time that the area is ripe for ecommerce growth.
In the post listed on LinkedIn, eBay are looking for a new Indonesian Head of Cross Border. The successful candidate will have 8 to 10 years Internet and ecommerce experience and will have been working in Indonesia for at last three years.
Marketplaces like Lazada based in South East Asia already serve Indonesia, but with local payment preferences including cash on delivery it’s not an easy country to service (Lazada handle payments on behalf of their merchants). However we understand that one of the primary objectives of eBay’s new Head of Cross Border will be to find local products that can be sold in the global market and to support Indonesian retail exporters.
eBay have had a local presence in Indonesia since 2013 – Blanja, a joint venture with state owned Telkom Indonesia. It looks likely that the initial focus from eBay will be to enable Indonesian export rather than make cross border trade to Indonesia easier. Probably in no small part to merchants needing permits to be allowed to register to sell on Blanja and a ton of other local regulations.
One Response
Well after being extremely involved in the US and a bunch of other markets, Ebay has to go somewhere right? They might want to consider working on their marketing here in the US again though as they have been having a bit of a rough patch lately.