Seputarkarawang.com - Karawang, As of early May 2026, a wave of adjustments to service fees on various e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Tokopedia, and TikTok Shop sparked polemics among sellers. This increase in costs is considered increasingly burdensome, especially for small and medium businesses that rely on daily capital turnover. On social media, the 'Leave E-commerce' movement emerged, which was followed by a number of large local brands who switched to using independent websites in order to maintain profits.The impact of this policy adjustment was also felt directly by local business actors and traders in Karawang Regency, many of whom use digital platforms as their main storefront. Shopee, for example, implemented adjustments to the XTRA Free Shipping program as of May 2 2026 with varying details depending on category. For the fashion and precious metals categories, service fees increased from 1.5 percent to 2 percent for regular size products.The increase in service fees certainly has a direct impact on the net profit margins of traders in Karawang who generally operate on a micro and small scale. In the midst of economic conditions that are not yet completely stable, the reduction in income due to platform cuts is considered to be increasingly eroding their business capital to survive in the digital realm.
Not only is there a problem with percentage cuts, other concerns also arise regarding the burden of logistics costs. Tokopedia and TikTok Shop have agreed to implement adjustments to logistics costs which are fully charged to sellers as of May 1 2026. This policy is calculated based on a percentage of shipping costs which vary according to package weight, destination distance and applicable tariffs.These additional logistics costs can cut merchant profits by around IDR 5,055 per order on TikTok Shop and up to IDR 10,110 per order on Tokopedia. For MSMEs in Karawang, this nominal amount is quite noticeable, especially for traders who have high sales volumes every day.In response to this new policy, Shopee is presenting several new benefit offers to balance cost adjustments. One of them is a program for new MSMEs which provides free service fee benefits for up to the first 1,000 orders or 12 months, as well as service fee promotions for advertising users.The high burden of service fees on large platforms opens up new opportunities for business people in Karawang to diversify sales channels. One strategy that local brands are starting to look at is building their own independent websites so that profit margins are maintained and are not cut by e-commerce service costs.Until now, business actors in Karawang hope that there will be further evaluation regarding cost-cutting policies from e-commerce management. That way, the digital economy can continue to grow without having to burden small traders in the regions who are trying to maintain capital circulation.
