Market Research Report  |  RisetLokal Research Desk

Appliances and Electronics Specialists Industry in Indonesia

Market Size, Store Network, Retailers, Smartphone Dominance, Channels & Regulation (2019–2024)

How Indonesia’s electronics and appliance stores work today: how much they sell, why there are fewer of them every year, and how one retailer came to control more than half of the channel.

01 · Executive Summary

A shrinking channel with one dominant winner

Indonesia’s appliance and electronics specialist stores sold about IDR 42 trillion (around US$2.7 billion) in 2024, through roughly 5,000 outlets. Sales grew 3.5% in 2024, the fourth year of recovery after a one-third collapse in 2020. They are still about 12% below 2019 in rupiah, and about 23% below after inflation.

The most striking thing about this market is not its size but its structure. Erajaya Swasembada, the phone and gadget retailer behind Erafone and iBox, has grown from about a third of specialist store sales in 2020 to about 57% in 2024. Over the same period, more than a thousand independent electronics shops closed.

Four facts frame the market today:

• Smartphones drive the channel. Phones and tablets are the largest product group, and instalment plans let middle- and lower-income buyers upgrade.
• Consolidation is extreme. Erajaya’s banners alone, Erafone and iBox, hold about 46% of specialist sales. The next chain, Electronic City, holds about 5.5%.
• Fewer, bigger, suburban stores. Outlet numbers fell 19% between 2019 and 2024. Growth now comes from stand-alone stores in suburbs and second- and third-tier cities rather than malls.
• Online is the real rival. Marketplaces sell phones, TVs and small appliances at sharp prices. Store chains answer with after-sales service, fast delivery and 0% instalments.

02 · Scope & Method

What we measured

This report covers store-based retailers whose main business is consumer electronics and appliances: smartphones and tablets, computers, TVs and audio, cameras, and large and small household appliances. Examples are Erafone, iBox, Electronic City, Hartono and independent electronics shops. Hypermarkets, department stores and pure online sellers are outside the market size, although we discuss them as competitors. Values are retail sales excluding sales tax.

Figures marked ¹ are RisetLokal estimates. Our base series comes from syndicated retail tracking. We rounded it and cross-checked it against the reports of listed retailers (Erajaya Swasembada, Electronic City Indonesia), BPS inflation and government rules on phone imports. Dollar values use Bank Indonesia average annual exchange rates.

03 · Market Size

IDR 42 trillion, still below its pre-pandemic peak

Year	Store sales (IDR trillion)1	Growth	Outlets1	Selling space (‘000 m²)1
2019	48.0	–	6,170	3,050
2020	31.6	−34%	5,870	2,900
2021	35.5	+12%	5,590	2,760
2022	39.3	+11%	5,210	2,660
2023	40.9	+4%	5,100	2,510
2024	42.3	+3.5%	5,000	2,540

Unlike many retail channels, this one has not returned to 2019 levels, and growth has slowed every year since 2021. Two forces explain it. First, many electronics purchases moved online during the pandemic and stayed there. Second, weaker spending among lower- and middle-income households in 2024 hit big-ticket items first.

Store productivity, however, has improved. With fewer outlets, the average store sold about IDR 8.5 billion in 2024, up from IDR 7.8 billion in 2019, or about IDR 16.7 million per square metre. The average store is about 500 square metres. The channel is consolidating into fewer, busier stores.

04 · Segmentation

Phones lead, appliances are the growth add-on

Product group	Role in specialist stores	Main retailers
Smartphones and tablets	Largest sales driver; frequent upgrades financed by instalments	Erafone, iBox, Oke Shop, brand stores
Computers and accessories	Steady; laptops for school and work	iBox (Apple), Erafone & More, Electronic City
TVs and audio	Big-ticket items, sensitive to promotions	Electronic City, Hartono, independents
Large appliances	Fridges, washing machines and ACs; delivery and installation matter	Electronic City, Erablue, Courts, independents
Small appliances and gadgets	Add-on sales, wearables, drones, cameras	Erafone & More, Erablue, iBox

Phone retailers have been moving into appliances to raise the value of each visit. Erajaya opened its first Erafone & More store in Margonda, Depok, in September 2022, combining phones with laptops, TVs and household devices. It also built Erablue, a chain of stand-alone appliance and electronics stores aimed at suburban and smaller-city shoppers. For one big-ticket appliance category, see our air conditioners report.

05 · Competitive Landscape

Erajaya and then a long gap

Erajaya Swasembada is the clear leader. It is both Indonesia’s largest phone distributor and its largest gadget retailer. Its banners include Erafone, Erafone Megastore, Erafone & More, Erablue and iBox, an Apple Premium Partner. Group revenue was IDR 65.3 trillion in 2024 and IDR 76.6 trillion in 2025, up 17%, with phones and tablets making up about 78% of 2025 sales. The group ended 2025 with 2,333 retail outlets. That figure is larger than the specialist store numbers above because it also counts lifestyle, sportswear and food-and-beverage stores and wholesale distribution.

Electronic City, a listed chain of mall-based electronics and appliance stores with about 60 outlets, is a distant second at about 5.5%. Regional chains such as Hartono in East Java, Courts and Oke Shop are each below 1%. Best Denki, the Japanese chain that had 27 Indonesian stores in 2021, has not been present in the market since 2022.

Brand-owned stores are a third force. Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo run or license their own experience stores and kiosks, and Apple sells through Premium Partners such as iBox and Digimap rather than its own store. These outlets are often operated by distributors, including Erajaya itself, which is one reason the leader’s share keeps rising. For a brand, the choice is less between Erajaya and a rival chain than between Erajaya’s stores, its own branded outlets and online marketplaces.

06 · Store Network

Erajaya opens, independents close

Between 2021 and 2024, Erafone stores more than tripled, from 287 to 936, and iBox doubled. At the same time, independent and smaller-chain outlets fell by about 1,400. The network is being rebuilt around a single operator’s brands.

The location strategy has also changed. New stores are increasingly stand-alone shops outside malls, in suburbs and second- and third-tier cities, where rents are lower and lower- and middle-income buyers are easier to reach. Erajaya pairs these stores with an offline-to-online model. Shoppers can browse and pay online, then pick up or get delivery from the nearest store. After-sales service is part of the pitch: fast warranty handling, one-day installation for appliances and replacement of faulty devices within 15 days.

07 · Demand Drivers & Constraints

Connected consumers, stretched budgets

Indicator	Value	Why it matters
Internet users (APJII, 2024)	~221.6 million (79.5% of population)	A large, connected base that upgrades phones regularly
Middle-class population (BPS)	57.3m (2019) → 47.9m (2024)	The core buyers of mid-range phones and appliances shrank
Consumer inflation, Dec 2024 (BPS)	1.57%	2024 growth was mostly volume and mix, not price
Specialist outlets, 20241	~5,000	Down about 19% from 2019 as independents closed
Average store size, 20241	~500 m²	Larger formats that mix phones with appliances

Indonesia is a phone-first market. Most people go online through a smartphone, many own more than one SIM card, and new models from Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo get heavy promotion. That keeps a steady flow of upgrade purchases even when budgets are tight. Buyers simply stretch the payment over 6 to 12 months.

The calendar matters too. Spending peaks before Eid al-Fitr, when many workers receive their religious holiday allowance (THR), and again at back-to-school time and during year-end online shopping days such as 12.12 (Harbolnas). Store chains plan launches and instalment offers around these dates.

The main constraint is the squeeze on the middle class. BPS counts about 9.5 million fewer people in the middle class in 2024 than in 2019. These households buy mid-range phones, TVs and washing machines. When they delay, the independent shops that serve them are hit first. That is one reason the long tail of the channel keeps shrinking while Erajaya, with its finance partners and wider reach, keeps growing.

08 · Channels, Payments & Promotions

Instalments, cashback and the online price war

Tool	How it is used
0% instalments	Offered with partner banks and consumer-finance firms; key for phones and large appliances
Cashback and vouchers	Weekend price promotions, weekly draws and loyalty points (e.g. EraClub)
Fast delivery	Some chains guarantee delivery within six hours in major cities
Shopping festivals and roadshows	Time-limited events with exclusive bundles
Exchange guarantees	Replacement of damaged goods to win trust against online sellers

Marketplaces such as Shopee, Tokopedia and Lazada, along with brands’ own official stores, compete on price. Store chains cannot always match them, so they compete on trust, warranty and financing. Digital payment and paylater options (see our digital payments report) have blurred the line between the two channels.

09 · Regulatory Environment

IMEI registration and local-content rules shape what can be sold

Rule	Effect on retailers
IMEI registration (since 2020)	Phones not registered with the government are blocked from local networks, which shrinks the grey market and favours official retailers
Local-content (TKDN) rule for 4G/5G phones	At least 35% local content is required before a phone can be certified for sale
iPhone 16 delay	The iPhone 16 could not be sold officially in Indonesia until 11 April 2025, when its certification was completed at 40% local content
SNI for household electronics (Permenperin 7/2025)	Mandatory standards for many appliances from July 2025
Energy-efficiency labels	Required for ACs, fridges and other appliances; stores display star ratings

These rules matter more here than in most retail. The iPhone 16 episode showed how a single certification decision can remove a top product from shelves for months. That hit iBox and every Apple reseller in the busiest selling season. IMEI registration, on the other hand, has helped official chains by making unofficial imports riskier for buyers.

10 · Implications

What this means if you are looking at Indonesia

• Brands: reaching Indonesian shoppers in stores largely means working with Erajaya. Local-content certification needs to be planned well before a launch.
• Retail entrants: mall electronics retail is mature and shrinking. The space that remains is in suburban stand-alone stores, appliance specialists, and regional chains with strong delivery and installation.
• Investors and lenders: consumer finance is the engine of the channel. Instalment availability and credit quality matter as much as product launches.

Executive Summary Slides

Appliances and Electronics Specialists Industry in Indonesia: Executive Summary