Since UNESCO established batik as Indonesia’s cultural heritage, the batik industry has been growing. Batik began to be known and loved by the community. Even the public’s interest in batik can be said to continue to increase. Batik, which at the beginning of its existence was only used in ceremonies, has grown. Now batik has been used in various events. A number of government and private agencies also helped popularize batik. One of them is by setting a mandatory day to use batik.
The public’s interest in batik also fosters the creativity of batik producers. Currently, batik producers do not only create clothes. Batik is also created in the form of bags, accessories, shoes, handicrafts, and so on. Batik production is progressing. Consumer demand for batik is getting higher.
However, the development of the batik industry has not been fully felt by all batik craftsmen. Generally, the growth of the batik industry is only felt by large producers. Meanwhile, medium and small industries which are often called Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have not fully experienced the progress of the batik industry. Both on a national and international scale. Because most of them are still traditional marketing strategies. Batik is only marketed around the place of residence, to neighbors, hung on market stalls and so on.
In one area in the city of Surakarta, such as Kauman, batik SMEs are experiencing marketing difficulties. It was stated by Mr. Sukatiman, S.IP, a village officer of Kauman Village that the SME Community of Batik Village in Kauman Village, Surakarta has difficulty marketing SME products, due to market competition which has begun to switch to using internet technology.
This attracted the attention of Puspanda Hatta, S. Kom, M. Eng and the Community Service Team of the PTIK Study Program, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, to create a website-based application. They named the application the UKM Digital Village application with the address http://www.kaumanbatik.com and the online shop with the address www.toko.kaumanbatik.com. This application can be used by the SME community of Kampung Batik Kauman to introduce their superior products through the internet and sell their products through online stores.
The SME Digital Village and Online Store application for the Kauman Batik Village SME Association of Surakarta was socialized to the Kauman community on Wednesday, August 8, 2018 in the Kauman village of Surakarta. This socialization aims to introduce a digital-based batik marketing model. Activities in the form of application handover socialization and technical guidance on how to use the application in the SME community of Kampung Batik Kauman Surakarta during August-September 2018. The community of the SME Batik Kauman association feels happy and gets many benefits from the presence of marketing innovations for their business results, especially batik.