Digital transformation readiness: How 'Sonjo Pangan' movement assists SMEs' product distributions during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 was initially discovered in China on December 31, 2019. One of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in several countries includes the enactment of policies to restrict human activities which caused economic problems for SMEs. The government efforts to tackle this issue are various such as launched a smartphone application for SMEs. Sonjo Pangan (Sonjo Food) refers to a movement initiated by a group of people expecting to help SMEs who are vulnerable to COVID-19. Sonjo assisted SMEs to sell their product online. This research aims to measure the digital readiness level of Sonjo Pangan SMEs and to explore how Sonjo Pangan helps SMEs during pandemic. Data had been collected by online questionnaire shared in their main media platform such as WhatsApp Group. Analysis was conducted by mix-method analysis. The result of this research indicated that Sonjo Pangan assisted SMEs to distribute their product in the city, intercity, even inter-island by WA group and through a free online platform. Sonjo Pangan SMEs thus obtained the advantages such as improvements in technology skills and development of social capital.