Alibaba.com, the world's largest e-commerce firm, is urging businesses in Thailand to quickly adapt to the medium as a gateway to global markets.
Rachel Wu, marketing manager of the Chinese site with 29 million registered users, said Thailand's e-commerce transactions in the first five months of this year increased by almost four times to 7.9 million baht, up from only 1.8 million baht in 2011.
Most orders stemmed from the United States, India and China.
Ms Wu said the best-selling Thai products were food and beverages, clothing and agricultural products. Machinery, cars and motorcycles, and home and garden items were the most popular products for Thai buyers.
However, only 5.8% of three million SMEs in Thailand use e-commerce to access overseas markets.
By comparison, she said, at least 42% of SMEs in China are active online.
Ms Wu said Thailand has high growth potential for e-commerce thanks to an abundance of product choices and great products at very low prices.
But SMEs in Thailand still lack knowledge about e-commerce, she said.
As of June, Alibaba had registered 249,000 users in Thailand, an increase of 22% from the same period last year. But only half of members were active.
In September, Alibaba launched verified membership in 10 countries including Thailand.
"We are offering verified membership free of charge for two years to enhance Thailand's product quality," Ms Wu said.
Alibaba.com and Web Courses Bangkok recently join on the special project under the name of Alibaba.com International E-Commerce Course. The facility allows interested exporters to learn how to apply e-commerce to their businesses.
The training will help Alibaba screen qualified suppliers before joining the verified membership programme, Ms Wu said.