Edison Wang is the founder of a Co-Operative for dog owners community in Indonesia, Koperasi I-RAW. The Co-Operative now has 47 Member-Owners serving over 1000 members of the I-RAW community and thousands more general public. Ever since the founding of the Co-Operative, Loyverse has been the best solution for them in managing and growing the business.

- Could you explain about your organization?

One year ago, I had an idea of starting a Dog Owners Co-Operative to help small business owners who are producing dog-related products and also help dog owners to be able to find affordable products for their dogs. So around one year ago, I gathered 20 members from our Dog Owner Community to start the Co-Operative. Each of us invested about 30

USD, and so our starting Capital is only about 600 USD. As the business grows, we added more Members/Owners until the 47 people that we have now. We are constantly looking out for more people who have the same vision and who are interested in contributing to the Co-Operative 

When we started, we had only 2 branches in our Capital city, Jakarta, but now we have expanded to 8 branches in 7 cities with a plan for additional 3 more branches in 3 other cities by the end of the year. 

- How does Loyvere benefit you?

When we started, we needed a solution to manage inventory and invoicing. After trying out several local POS solutions, we found Loyverse and it seems fit to our situation. It is simple, so it doesn’t take time to learn. We don’t need much time to teach new branch operators how to use it. 

Another thing why I like Loyverse is that the customer service is really fast. If I have a problem, usually it takes only a few minutes to get the answer in the live chat. Because of this, I always recommend my friends to try Loyverse. It is really helping our small business. Otherwise, we have to record inventory manually, etc.

- How is your business situation during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Actually, pet ownership during the Covid time increased a lot because of the isolation. So our sales grew very well. 

If our community gets an extra profit, we distribute it to members. The Co-Operative has enabled us to run a lot of social programs that benefit the dog owners. We provide services such as free vaccination for dogs, giveaways, and donations for shelter, etc.

- How does each member of the community work together?

Even though the Co-Operative still looks to make a profit, as a Community-Owned business, profit is not the main goal, but the goal is to create a sustainable organization that benefits the people and the community that we serve. Even now, after growing to multiple branches, most of us who manage the Co-Operative are volunteers. 

- If you would meet yourself before starting this, what would you say?

I would say “Believe in your dream”. When I started this community, many people said to me, “It won’t work”. We had only 11 members at that time, and now we have 1000 members. 

  The current Co-Operative is my second attempt. The first Co-Operative failed. But It didn’t discourage me. I just tried to analyze what was my mistake and correct them. Probably because I didn’t use Loyverse :). 

We started the second version with small capital, only 600 USD. Now it has over 60 times bigger capital than the original capital. 

- That is so fantastic!

Instagram - Koperasi I-RAW