TOCO Sellers Flooded: Rising Marketplace Admin Fees, a New Opportunity?

TOCO is currently experiencing a significant influx of online sellers, a trend driven by the rising administrative fees prevalent across other e-commerce platforms. This new marketplace, characterized by its distinctive yellow branding, sets itself apart by offering completely free administrative fees for sellers.

Arnold Sebastian, CEO of TOCO, while declining to specify the exact increase in seller numbers, noted the substantial migration. “Many are frustrated with the escalating administrative costs,” he explained during the Selular Telco Outlook event in South Jakarta on Wednesday (26/11). “They are flocking to ‘the yellow platform.’ This migration is entirely organic.” Sebastian further emphasized, “We haven’t spent a single rupiah on marketing. Everything has been organic.”

According to the online sellers he has encountered, complaints frequently revolve around commissions ranging from 8% to a staggering 38% of sales, levied by various e-commerce platforms. However, Sebastian did not detail the specific marketplaces being referred to.

“Such high margins are detrimental to the economy,” Arnold asserted. “Brands cannot grow if their profits are consumed by platform fees.”

Currently, TOCO boasts one million monthly active users and an impressive 3.4 million product listings. The e-commerce platform officially launched in Indonesia in August 2024, quickly gaining recognition for its policy of waiving administrative fees for sellers. Instead, the platform charges buyers a fixed transaction fee of Rp 2,000, which it terms a “parking fee.” Arnold clarified that this charge is designed to cover payment processing and logistics integration costs without impacting seller revenues.

TOCO offers two distinct primary services:

1. TOCO Marketplace: This platform facilitates the buying and selling of various products, including fashion, electronics, and daily necessities. The entire checkout and payment process is seamlessly conducted directly within the application.
2. TOCO Classified: A classifieds feature that allows sellers to promote items such as cars, property, and other large products without requiring the transaction process to occur within the app itself.

Through TOCO Classified, buyers gain the advantage of directly contacting sellers via phone numbers or WhatsApp, thereby circumventing the limitations of closed chat systems typically found on other marketplaces.

“TOCO mirrors the original concept of Toko Bagus,” Arnold stated, drawing a comparison to the former popular classifieds site. “It’s not about building a large corporation, but rather about fulfilling a genuine need in the market.”

TOCO champions a community-based marketplace approach. Arnold highlighted internal research revealing that in numerous categories, particularly for used goods, motorcycles, and cars, transaction decisions are driven more by inter-individual relationships than by price alone. He observed a pattern, for instance, in used motorcycle transactions, which frequently occur within local communities, often between familiar owners and dealers. This insight, he noted, significantly reinforces TOCO’s core concept of fostering direct relationships between sellers and buyers.

“In many communities, relationships are more crucial than price. That is precisely what we aim to strengthen,” Arnold concluded, underscoring TOCO’s strategic vision.