Tackling Indonesia’s beauty industry
MECAPAN, an end-to-end mobile management app for the beauty industry, will be tapping into the growing beauty sector in Indonesia as it looks to roll out its services in Greater Jakarta in the first quarter of 2018.
“Currently, there is huge market inefficiencies in Indonesia’s beauty sector. Women find it difficult to locate credible beauty treatment providers that fit their budget. There is also no easy way to compare between service providers and book appointments. At the same time, beauty service providers face difficulties attracting and retaining customers due to the lack of a proper system for customer service.
“Therefore, Mecapan is created to solve these problems,” said Mecapan co-founder and chief executive officer Naula Kamila.
The startup, co-founded by three Indonesians – Naula, Syifa Alsakina and Galih Taufiqurrahman – aims to change the way beauty service providers manage their customers and make it easy for women to access beauty services.
Mecapan, founded in September 2017, recently launched an equity crowdfunding (ECF) campaign on Ata Plus to raise RM300,000 to support its growth plans.
Naula noted that data from 2012 revealed that the area of Greater Jakarta alone houses over 16 million women and more than 100,000 beauty and body care service providers.
According to the Beauty Market Survey, conducted by Nielsen and Euro Monitor, the value of Indonesia’s cosmetics industry was estimated at US$2.7bil in 2016, up by around 12% from the value in the preceding year.
However, the market remains fragmented as most of the beauty service providers are small business owners operating in small domains. It is tough for customers to reach them and vice versa.
“It is timely to launch Mecapan in Indonesia as the country sees a rapid rise of the middle-income group and career women who are constantly seeking out a wide vari- ety of beauty services. We believe that Mecapan is in the right position to capture this market. In a market that seems to be saturated, Mecapan proves that it could offer a unique service to growing and niche customers and beauty providers,” Naula added.
Mecapan has signed on some 400 merchants to-date.
The app will provide merchants with tools to attract more customers, manage online bookings, enable digital transactions, carry out data analytics and offer customer loyalty programmes.
Meanwhile, consumers will be able to access a wide array of trusted and tested beauty providers handpicked by Mecapan, save time and money by booking appointments online and share their experiences on the platform.
“We see a lot of potential in Mecapan and the solutions they provide. It is a huge leap forward for the ECF sector as we continue to democratise investment and make opportunities accessible for everyone across different geographies. We are extremely excited to work with the Mecapan team and optimistic that they will meet their target in their first fundraising campaign,” said Kyri Andreou, co-founder and director of Ata Plus.
Naula is positive that the startup has the potential to grow big based on initial market response.