China tech giants bet on untangling logistics of Indonesian e-commerce

A worker checks a computer at the packaging area at online retailer Lazada's warehouse in Depok, south of Jakarta, Indonesia March 26, 2018. Picture taken March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

JAKARTA: In a warehouse on the outskirts of Indonesia's capital, supervisors at e-commerce company Lazada use bikes or electric scooters to zip around a floor the size of four soccer fields, where up to 3,000 staff pack and dispatch goods around the clock. 

The warehouse is one of five that Lazada has opened across Indonesia to cut costs and expand its reach in an archipelago whose 17,000 islands are sprinkled across an area bigger than the European Union.