Digitalization of Cirebon Batik SMEs: E-Commerce Strategies for Heritage Preservation and Profitability

Abstract

Cirebon batik is both a living cultural heritage and a livelihood base for thousands of micro, small, and medium enterprises (SMEs) clustered in Trusmi. The migration of consumers to digital marketplaces has placed these heritage producers under competitive pressure that threatens their commercial viability and the continuity of traditional craft knowledge. This study investigates how Cirebon batik SMEs design e-commerce strategies that reconcile two often antagonistic objectives: heritage preservation and profitability. Using a qualitative multi-case design, data were gathered through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation of online selling, and analysis of platform storefronts across three SME clusters. Effective digitalization emerged not as uniform technology adoption but as a layered repertoire combining marketplace listings, social commerce, live selling, and own-channel storytelling, calibrated to each enterprise's digital maturity. A positive association was found between a constructed Digital Maturity Index and net profit margin, while preservation advanced through motif provenance disclosure and digital cataloguing. The study proposes a Heritage-Profitability Digital Integration model operationalizing authenticity, adaptive capability, multichannel orchestration, value capture, and continuity as governance principles for craft-based digital enterprise