Jakarta. There is nothing unusual about service fees on e-commerce platforms going up, according to both the industry association and think-tank.

“As long as it does not put a burden on consumers, the rise in service fees is really actually reasonable. Especially if we consider how costly the investment in the digital sector is, not to mention [how the sector needs] to constantly evolve, particularly to better secure the users’ transactions,” Indonesian E-Commerce Association (idEA) chairman Bima Laga was quoted as saying by news outlet Suara.com.

“The prices charged are still reasonable, as long as it is not progressive and not in the form of a percentage. The imposition of service or handling fees have gone through a thorough consideration, ranging from the price of goods to the people’s interests in shopping,” Bima said.

According to Piter Abdullah, the director of research at the Center of Reform on Economics (CORE),  service fees on e-commerce are part of companies’ strategy to boost efficiency for profitability and business continuity. Higher service fees are also to pave the way for innovations and improve services, customer experience, as well as facilities offered to the customers.

“These adjustments should not lessen the number of users or their trust [for e-commerce platforms]. Online shopping has become the norm. E-commerce platforms like Tokopedia surely have their own loyal customers who uphold comfort and shopping experience in their platform of choice,” Piter said.

As of May 2, Tokopedia has begun to charge its customers a Rp 1,000 service fee for every transaction paid with a virtual account. Tokopedia has also made adjustments to the service fees for each physical product transaction. Transactions worth up to Rp 1 million will be charged a Rp 2,000 app service fee. The app service fee can rise to Rp 3,000 if the transactions are worth more than Rp 1 million. The service fee app does not apply to financial products, digital products, TopAds advertising features charity -- except for the rounding off of gold transactions -- and phone credits which are included in purchases of physical products. 

Shopee has already charged its users service and handling fees, which both cost Rp 1,000 respectively, for their transactions. Starting this month, Shopee has raised the admin fee for ShopeePay top-ups for instant debits, bank transfers, and merchants. The admin fees now range from Rp 1,000 to Rp 2,000.