Advanced Info Service (AIS), the country's largest mobile operator by subscriber base, has worked with social media platform Line to support shops to reach out to customers close to their sites through a Bluetooth-based device.
The device, called DEVIO BEACON, is expected to become a crucial marketing tool in the new era.
It assists shops in efficiently communicating promotions in real time to customers through Line Official Accounts (OA), aimed at customers walking past their storefronts within a radius of 10-25 metres.
Arakin Rakchittapoke, head of the novel engine execution department at AIS, said lockdown measures had brought new ways of living in the age of social distancing.
As a result, marketing communications and persuasion with sales promotions must also be completely transformed.
"Storefront walk-by detection overcomes social distancing challenges," Mr Arakin said.
"In the face of social distancing, it helps to reduce the risk of personal contact, while enabling continuous rapid promotion updates, to stimulate boundless sales."
Mr Arakin said the DEVIO BEACON is a device that sends and receives data from the Line app over Bluetooth 5.2 -- the latest version.
The shop owner only needs to place the DEVIO BEACON device in the store and update their promotions on the DEVIO CONNEXT platform, which connects to the store's OAs.
Walking past the shop triggers the promotional message in real time, addressing the challenge of offline-to-online marketing and efficiently penetrating customers, completely replacing leaflets or other limited ways to update promotions, he said.
This collaboration will extend the digital ecosystem for developers to showcase their capabilities to create new opportunities and help shops with flexible storefront marketing, he added.
The move underscores the importance of direct-to-customer business mode, which is now gathering pace among businesses.
According to the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), the value of Thailand's e-commerce is expected to grow by 6.1% to 4 trillion baht this year, crucially driven by businesses that are sharpening their focus on the business-to-customer model in the wake of the pandemic.
The ETDA indicated that the direct-to-customer approach is now a prevailing trend as the pandemic has pushed enterprises of all sizes to sell products and services directly to customers.