We mostly have no customers. However, many tenants here have started online sales, and that is going well.Yogyakarta (ANTARA) - With the COVID-19 pandemic keeping shoppers away, tenants hawking fashion and batik items at the Beringharjo traditional market in Yogyakarta are utilizing online platforms to sell their products.
Vendors of fashion products at Beringharjo normally rely on business from tourists, and therefore, the enactment of social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines have hit them hard.
"We mostly have no customers. However, many tenants here have started online sales, and that is going well," Ujun Junaedi, leader of Beringharjo's tenant community, said on Wednesday.
"Some (vendors) are utilizing online marketplaces, some others are trading their products through instant message chat groups," he noted, adding women’s fashion items, such as dresses and pajamas, are among the products being sold this way.
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Almost all the tenants at the traditional market had shut down their businesses once the coronavirus outbreak spread, and now, about 90 percent have begun to reopen stalls.
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A week ahead of the Eid al-Fitr celebration on May 24 this year, trade was increasing by as much as 40 percent, but later, it declined by more, Junaedi expounded. Given the situation today, only a handful of local shoppers are visiting the market, he added.
Some health protocols have been applied at the market to prevent any transmission of the novel coronavirus disease. In addition, the city’s agency on industry and trade has provided safe shopping guidelines and healthy lifestyle infrastructure in view of the ongoing pandemic.
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Translator: Eka Arifa Rusqiyati, Suwanti
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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