How a Colorful Mop Garnered 3 Million Followers: A Chinese Home Brand's Rise to Top in Indonesia

[Ebrun Exclusive] Expanding into Southeast Asia has seemingly evolved from a 'gold rush' to a synonym for 'intense competition.' In earlier years, due to low barriers, similar consumption habits, and proximity to China, this region was a gentle harbor for countless merchants setting sail overseas. However, in recent years, as Chinese sellers flooded in, the early dividends of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market quickly dissipated—replaced by rising platform operating costs, continuous profit erosion from exchange rate fluctuations, and fierce battles for market share amidst price wars. Chen Qing, who entered the Indonesian home goods sector in 2019, is both a witness and participant in this dramatic transformation.

Six years ago, while visiting a friend running an e-commerce business in Indonesia, Chen unexpectedly discovered a market gap: not only did some categories boast profit margins as high as 20%, but there were also no dominant players in the home goods sector. In September of that year, he landed in Indonesia with his first container holding just 3,000 products—thus founding the brand GM bear.

To deeply cultivate the Indonesian market, Chen established a local operations team and built his own warehousing network in cities like Jakarta, Surabaya, and Medan. Currently, GM bear's Shopee store has amassed 3 million followers, capturing about 30% market share in its category, with daily orders exceeding 10,000. The brand has also won Shopee's 'Most Popular Brand Award among Consumers.'

However, even as a top seller, Chen admits, 'Business has become increasingly difficult in recent years.' With profit margins showing a declining trend, he has cut a large number of unprofitable SKUs—refined operations are now essential for navigating the Indonesian e-commerce market.

Keeping pace with changes in the Southeast Asian e-commerce landscape, GM bear has also ventured into TikTok Shop, which now contributes approximately 40% of its sales. At the fourth Overseas Creator Product Selection Expo and Industry Conference hosted by TikTok data service provider FastMoss, Chen told Ebrun: 'Previously, shelf e-commerce was about meeting demand; now, content e-commerce on TikTok Shop is about creating demand. This shift is also a challenge for me.'

01 Seizing Indonesia's E-commerce Dividend, Creating Localized Hit Products

Chen Qing previously worked in the 3C category at JD.com, where his 500-person team achieved annual sales exceeding 2 billion yuan. In 2019, he began his overseas expansion, targeting the gap in Indonesia's home goods market.

Six years ago, TikTok had not yet launched its e-commerce business in Southeast Asia, and data analysis companies like FastMoss were non-existent—everything was just beginning. The method for checking bestseller lists was primitive, relying solely on manual keyword searches to view front-end sales data.

Through offline store visits and online research, Chen found that the local home goods category was in a 'blooming flowers' state—no absolute hit products, high-selling items came from offline brands with minimal operations and high prices, yet they still ranked first in their categories. 'We saw plenty of opportunities to enter. If I'm going to do this market, I'll do it from a top player's perspective,' he said.

Correspondingly, the blue ocean market offered ample room for trial and error. According to Chen, the first container in September 2019 held only three to four thousand items—'stocking was easy, and the cargo value was low.' Nowadays, a container must hold at least 10,000 products, with values reaching 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. Additionally, the platform, recognizing his potential as a major seller, waived commissions and provided extra subsidies. Such friendly platform policies and a lenient market environment undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for GM bear's start.

GM bear's first hit product in Indonesia was a small mop. With relatively small per capita living spaces locally, standard-sized mops from China were impractical, but the compact mop perfectly suited the confined living environments. This minor product adjustment quickly led to monthly sales of 200,000 units. They also discovered that people in tropical regions prefer bright, vibrant colors, whereas mops from China were mostly gray. GM bear then tried making a colorful mop, which became another hit.

Furthermore, leveraging economies of scale, GM bear could effectively handle unexpected surges in orders. Chen noted that they now use data-driven operations enabling real-time restocking. They ship 30 containers per month—essentially shipping daily without waiting to consolidate loads, rarely facing stockouts due to order spikes.

02 Building Warehousing and Logistics to Create a Cost Moat

A significant pain point in Indonesian e-commerce is high logistics costs—Indonesia, known as the 'Thousand Islands Nation,' comprises thousands of islands scattered across the archipelago, making inter-island shipping extremely expensive.

Before building their own warehouses, GM bear established a distribution center in Jakarta, the capital. Riders delivered goods to consumers via motorcycle, achieving a 2-hour delivery time. However, as order volumes surged, hundreds of motorcycles queued outside the Jakarta warehouse, causing street blockages that eventually led to police intervention and a shutdown.

Subsequently, Chen began heavy investment in warehouse infrastructure, building a 10,000-square-meter main warehouse in Jakarta, with branch warehouses of 2,800 sqm in Surabaya and 1,500 sqm in Medan. Reportedly, GM bear now achieves delivery within two days nationwide and same-day delivery locally.

But the primary significance of self-built warehouses isn't just improved delivery efficiency—it's reduced logistics costs. Chen explained that their own warehouses can lower the average logistics cost per order to under 2 yuan, compared to about 4 yuan for official platform warehouses—a difference of over 100%. This cost advantage persists even as the number of Chinese sellers entering Indonesia surges.

As GM bear's operations became increasingly 'heavy' locally, Chen also focused on branding. In 2023, GM bear enlisted an Indonesian top celebrity with 20 million followers as a brand ambassador—who later became Shopee's official endorser. That same year, GM bear won Shopee's 'Most Popular Brand Award,' and its Shopee store followers gradually accumulated to nearly 3 million.

Chen pointed out that Shopee follower counts are relatively valuable, consisting of consumers who have either made purchases or favorited items. These 3 million followers are the best proof of GM bear's brand influence. Additionally, GM bear gained preferential platform resources, such as custom short drama placements by Shopee, exclusive setups in official live streams, and even a dedicated live stream room set up for them during annual events broadcast on television.

As the business grew, Chen also recognized the limitations of online e-commerce: 90% of transactions in Indonesia still occur offline, an area few Chinese sellers have entered. Thus, GM bear has now ventured into local home goods stores and wholesale markets for B2B sales, which contribute about 10% of revenue.

'Offline is a credit term business,' Chen stated bluntly. 'Indonesians don't have a savings habit; business relies on 'selling on credit'—give me the goods first, pay after selling. Without local credit backing, Chinese can only deal cash-on-delivery. 'If you dare extend credit, they dare disappear.' He indicated that online represents the 10% battleground for Chinese sellers; the remaining 90% offline, 'we cannot shake, nor can we outcompete them.'

03 Refining the Existing Market, Embracing Content E-commerce

While business seems thriving, and GM bear has become a major seller with 30% market share in Shopee's home category, when asked about this year's goal, Chen's answer is simply 'survival.' This is closely tied to the increasingly fierce competition in Southeast Asian e-commerce.

'It was an incremental market back then; now it's a stock market. The opportunity to start from scratch in Indonesia like we did is very small now,' Chen said.

Indeed, GM bear is already addressing declining profit margins by streamlining SKUs. Chen categorizes SKUs into A, B, C, and D based on sales volume and profit: A is 'high volume and profitable,' B is 'high volume but not profitable,' C is 'profitable but low volume,' and D is 'neither profitable nor high volume.' 'We started cutting from D upwards, and now we've reached B category,' he said. Concurrently, the pace of new product development has slowed from 30 items per month to 15.

Moreover, rising platform commissions, various cost increases, and currency depreciation further squeeze merchants' profits. 'Previously, net profit could reach 20%; now platform fees alone exceed 20%.' In 2025, the Indonesian Rupiah continued to weaken against the Chinese Yuan, hitting its lowest closing level since November 2007.

Early on, Chen considered using Indonesia as a base to expand into other Southeast Asian markets. His fundraising pitch deck once stated: 'Using Indonesia as a bridgehead to attack Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines.' But as they deepened their local presence, he realized, 'Other Southeast Asian countries, from beliefs to scripts, tax laws to people's temperaments, are completely different from Indonesia. Expanding there isn't going from 1 to 10, but from 0 to 1.' So, that line was removed from the deck. Now, he prefers to continue deepening their roots in the archipelago.

The only new incremental battleground is TikTok. In 2022, revenue from TikTok accounted for only 20% of GM bear's total, but its contribution has now risen to 40%. Chen positions it as 'brand promotion' rather than a profit center. 'Shopee is shelf e-commerce, like Taobao, meeting your search needs; TikTok creates demand, first seeding interest through short videos, then converting via live streams. They are complementary; although competitive, their user bases are quite distinct,' he explained.

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