Halal e-commerce site Aladdinstreet to launch in Indonesia by year-end

JAKARTA – PT Aladdin Dotkom Indonesia will launch halal e-commerce site Aladdinstreet with the Indonesia .id domain by the end of this year, its CEO Achmad Riawan Amin told Salaam Gateway.

The company needs investments of around $2 million to set up with a local Indonesian partner, develop its technology, onboard merchants, and run promotional campaigns.

“We believe Aladdin has a strong image. When I say ‘Aladdin’ people will definitely refer to Aladdin the magic lamp,” said Amin.

According to him, the company will only invite around 200 merchants in Indonesia.

All shortlisted merchants will have to undergo stringent halal compliance and business integrity checks by Aladdin’s in-house Business Integrity Task Force that is headed by industry experts, including members of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the country’s top Muslim clerical body.

“Something that we learnt from our competitors is the importance of selective procedures and monitoring. We can’t just list all merchants,” added Amin.

“We have divided products into two categories: products that require halal certification such as pharmaceuticals and health care, and products with non-halal certification but that require safety, hygiene and various other standards and regulations such as SGS, SQE, GMP, HACCP, ISO and JIS.”

The company also plans to assist SMEs produce and manufacture quality Indonesian products by shortening their delivery times, cutting red tape and fast tracking them to be made available on the world market.

The Malaysia-based Aladdin group has allocated $130 million to advertise and promote the Aladdinstreet brand name all over the world in the next three years, said Amin.

It expects around $120 million in sales within the first 12 months of its launch, he added.

It has entered into 30 countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam.

Funding for the group comes mainly from angel investors from the Middle East, according to Amin.

In February, Aladdinstreet co-founder Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor told Salaam Gateway the company had allocated up to $100 million for global branding, advertising and promotion efforts for the next three years, and that the platform is looking to onboard more than 60,000 “reputable halal merchants” from around the world.

In April, company co-founder Desmond To told Salaam Gateway it aims to make $750 million in revenue within its first year of operations, based on an estimated 50 to 100 merchants in each of the 30 countries the platform will have a market presence in.

PT Aladdin Dotkom Indonesia shares owned by businessman Achmad Riawan Amin was bought over by Malaysia’s Aladdin Group Sdn Bhd today.

© SalaamGateway.com 2016