DIGITAL MARKETING IMPLEMENTATION ON MICRO BUSINESS QKIZ

Abstract

With the rapid development of technology, it is more accessible for humans to carry out economic activities online. Previously people needed to leave their houses to buy and sell. Now most can be done online. Nowadays, people can easily buy and sell transactions online, ranging from daily necessities to food.

It became one of the reasons many online micro-enterprises have started to grow. In Indonesia alone, according to the general chairman of the Indonesian E-commerce Association, as many as 9.2 million micros, small, and medium businesses have switched to digital during the pandemic (Laga, 2022). These are also affected by the large number of employees laid off and government regulations limiting large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) and working from home (WFH), leading to the increased number of people buying and selling online. Based on the Department of Manpower data, there is 15.099 worker affected by Covid-19. 598 people among them get layoffs, and 2.842 people get unpaid leave. (Syakyakirti, 2020)

One of the micro businesses that emerged during the pandemic was Qkiz, a home product that provides soft cookies with innovative flavors. with the many micro businesses that have become apparent on social platforms. Qkiz needs to be able to find a strategy in order to compete with other online shops.

According to the minister of cooperatives and small and medium enterprises, “the average failure of micro businesses failing in online selling is a lack of sufficient human resources, lack of knowledge of human resources in using digital marketing, and because they have a small production capacity, so they do not can meet market demand. In addition to these two factors, intense competition is also the cause of the failure of micro-businesses on digital platforms” (Masduki, 2020). Qkiz, a micro-enterprise in Batam, also experiences similar problems, Qkiz has failed to keep the total number of cookie sales every day. The difference between the number of sales on weekends and weekdays in online channels has a very large gap. For example, at the weekend Qkiz's number of sales on the online channel at the weekend can be reached 150 pieces a day. On the weekdays, the sales can be dropped into 2 pieces a day. This situation became a sign for Qkiz, that they had a problem in their digital marketing.