Bukalapak 'sunsets' irrelevant offerings, less than 10% workforce impacted

Indonesian eCommerce firm Bukalapak has refuted media reports of mass layoffs in a statement to Marketing Interactive, calling them "incorrect". The spokesperson explained that less than 10% of Bukalapak's over 2,500 employees are impacted by changes in the company, which includes "sunsetting" of some products and programmes.She said that those offerings are not the firm's core strength and not relevant to Indonesia market, and therefore will not be its focus. "These are products and programmes where we can create bigger impact by forging synergies and collaborations with different companies, including our sister companies in Emtek Group, in areas such as smart retail and Internet of Things," she added.This comes as Bukalapak sets its eyes to be the "first eCommerce unicorn that is financially sustainable". According to the statement, Bukalapak has been doing a lot of internal alignment to refocus its strategy back to its core strength and to who it truly is as a company since early this year. This alignment entails system upgrades, implementation of new policies and processes to cope with our rapid growth, and focused recruitment on all levels."With our well-performing business and sufficient capital, we are targeting for breakeven and hopeful to be profitable in the foreseeable future – of course with a disclaimer that we’re operating in a very dynamic industry," said a Bukalapak spokesperson.We also believe that this is the next stage we need to be at: being a “grown-up company” and thinking of long-term sustainability like a mature adult.The company said it has been successfully delivering increase in monetisation, cementing its path profitability, which is "tracking well and even ahead of expectations". Bukalapak's gross profit for the first half of 2019 was three times of last year's over the same period and it has been halving its EBITDA loss in the past eight months.Moving forward, it will focus its "time, energies and resources" to products and programmes that are relevant for mass market such as Marketplace, Mitra Bukalapak, BukaGlobal, and Penerimaan Negara. These will support Indonesia’s vision to be financially and digitally inclusive in concrete manner, added the spokesperson.Meanwhile, she said that recruitment for specific skillset to strengthen the company's core marketplace business is also ongoing. Last month, Bukalapak appointed former global brand communication lead at adidas Germany, Erick Wicaksono Kurniawan as VP of marketing. He will oversee marketing initiatives that includes establishing a series of company marketing campaigns, improving the way marketing teams work at the eCommerce company, as well as to ensuring the executions are rooted in the company brand DNA. Read more: Bukalapak partners Axinan to offer customers insurance for electronics purchases Bukalapak and MoneySmart founders on tackling the fragmented Asian market Bukalapak ties up with MoEngage to drive cross-channel user engagement ECommerce players in Indonesia share their tips to success