Hypermarkets, department stores, shopping centres and convenience stores are all aggressively moving further into online services.
Their goal is to spur shopping from young consumers who have high spending power.
This month, Future Park Rangsit, Tesco Lotus, Central Group and Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group simultaneously launched online business strategies to boost their sales and attract the young generation to become their new customers.
Moreover, their operationfand sales increase despite having no more retail space.
More importantly, online shopping will serve new customers in locations where retailers have not opened stores.
Wanna Swuddigul, digital and online business director at Tesco Lotus, said a company study found customers in the digital age expected easy and quick transactions when shopping online.
It has developed the Tesco Lotus Shop Online mobile app to help customers order groceries easily by just scanning the barcode on packages at home or a product seen in other stores.
The app is available for download for a few weeks on both Android and iOS mobile platforms. About 20,000 products are available via the app.
"Tesco Lotus Shop Online has received great feedback from customers, and orders have grown steadily. Spending per bill is about five times higher than spending at stores. We expect to have 200,000 downloads from customers this year," Ms Wanna said.
Tesco Lotus has joined hands with many partners including Plus Property, whose customers at Plus condominiums or housing estates can try out online shopping.
Apart from the mobile app, customers can shop at Tesco Lotus via Lazada.com for items such as home appliances, mobiles, fashion and sporting goods.
Central Group is also putting a greater focus on online business due to constant changes in technology and consumer behaviour.
Chief executive Tos Chirathivat said online business represented a massive growth opportunity that allowed customers browse quickly and conveniently and shop for Central Group's array of products and brands at Central.co.th with security and reliability.
The group targets 800 million baht in sales revenue from its online channel this year, increasing to 2 billion baht over the next two years.
Ratana Anuntanupong, vice-president for marketing at Rangsit Plaza Co, operator of Future Park Rangsit, said the company had launched the Futurepark mobile app to offer a new shopping experience at Future Park.
The company will install iBeacon transmitters at 30 doors in the complex so customers who load the Futurepark app and walk into the centre can receive many giveaways each week along with hot promotions. It expects 20,000 customers to load its app.
"This offering will encourage our customers to visit our store even though they have many shopping alternatives in the area," Mrs Ratana said.
Furthermore, 24 Shopping Co, a subsidiary of CP All Plc, the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores, opened a Chinese-language website called Taiwang.com this year to serve the many Chinese customers interested in beauty products at 7-Eleven.
The company will put more products and its website into a local search engine.
Its online sales will increase to 10-12% of total sales over the next three years from 2-5% now.