Interview with Warung Pintar CEO

In Indonesia, there are more than 2.5 million warungs (micro-businesses and kiosks that sell basic products) that account for more than 80% of total retail sales. However, these warungs are typically mom-and-pop owned and highly fragmented in both demand and supply. Launched in 2017, Warung Pintar aims to empower warungs through digitalization. With its focus on e-commerce services and supply chain, the company has reduced warung transaction costs by 28% on average.

We chat with Agung Bezharie to understand more.

How do we directly and indirectly contribute economic value to the community?

We believe that warungs are highly dependent on these three key points of the supply chain:

• Stock availability
• Faster and more accurate delivery
• Competitive prices

These issues have become even more apparent during the pandemic, as they have affected warungs operations. With Warung Pintar’s supply chain system that is intently designed to be adaptive and responsive, we managed to improve our operations and services to support warung owners accordingly.

How do we continuously improve access to business opportunities?

Warung Pintar continuously improves our products and services by getting in-depth exposure with warungs. This allows us to understand their short and long-term problems and to understand what warungs need. Through these feedbacks, we have been able to come up with better features and platforms to help these warungs.

One example is Iklan Pintar, a platform that we created for our Brand partners to expand their businesses through targeted advertisement placement in warung’s app. We saw the potential of doing advertisements in warungs by building a service that can provide higher economic benefits for our warungs as well as to provide a detailed consumer insight for Brands.

Another example is our integration with GrabMart. At the beginning of the pandemic, we found out that beverages, groceries, household appliances, and personal care products were some of the top commodities requested by warungs to fulfil the daily needs for the mass market. As there was a consumer behavior shift in online shopping, this facilitated us to encourage warung owners to sell online through GrabMart.

Do we have financial literacy programs?

We have been facilitating warungs to get thorough learning and knowledge sharing through Komunitas Pintar, a community-based program that aims to improve the capabilities of warung owners. Through our application, we have uploaded video format modules with test questions. This is designed to be practical and covers a range of topics, including marketing strategy, stock inventory, and even cash flow management. Other than that, we also have Catatan Pintar, an in-app feature that warung owners can use to record their debts.

From all our registered warung owners in Komunitas Pintar, the accumulated test score reached 7 out of 10 on average. They have also achieved 42% higher gross daily income more than those who did not join. As for Catatan Pintar, our internal survey showed that 42% of warung owners that have used it found the feature very useful. We are proud and happy that this program has been very useful for the warungs.

Which charities and community programs are we involved with?

As a company that carries out social impact in our DNA, Warung Pintar tries to develop products and services that have extensive social values. Starting from feedbacks related to social assistance, Warung Pintar now offers Bantuan Pintar, an end-to-end social assistance program that is efficient, sustainable, and suitable for the needs of our partners. It enables us to distribute basic necessities, staple foods, working capital, and business facilities to the beneficiaries.

To date, Bantuan Pintar has helped to channel more than 17 billion Rupiah and has benefited over 100,000 recipients. We also work with numerous partners like Kompas Gramedia, Rumah Yatim, London School Beyond Academy and others to extend the reach of Bantuan Pintar.

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Please click here to read more about Warung Pintar’s latest Impact Report.