Shopee, an e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, is forecasting growth in Thailand's e-commerce market based on an expansion in the user base and intense marketing and promotions to help boost purchasing power amid a sluggish economy.
According to the "Digital 2022: Thailand" report by creative agency We Are Social and strategic consultancy Kepios, some 36.6 million people purchased consumer goods via the internet in Thailand last year, up 8.7% year-on-year, with total spending of US$19 billion.
Thailand's e-commerce continues to grow in 2022 despite the economic downturn as online behaviour is taking root among Thai customers. The number of online shoppers rapidly increased during the pandemic over the past two years.
Suchaya Paleewong, senior marketing manager at Shopee Thailand, said the firm acknowledges that growth this year cannot match the period under lockdown as people wanted to buy more things online during that time.
The expanding customer base is evident during its double day mega campaigns, with the record for events such as 11:11 on Nov 11 and 12:12 on Dec 12 increasing since 2019, before slightly dropping earlier this year as people spend more time outside their homes, said Ms Suchaya.
She said health products and fast-moving consumer goods were top categories during the first year of the pandemic.
The second year saw home living and gardening products become more popular, before switching back to a varied assortment this year, said Ms Suchaya.
Shopee plans to intensify its marketing and promotions by introducing a mid-month campaign called 3.15 Consumer Day, adding to existing monthly campaign, she said.
The company selected actress Davika Hoorne as local brand ambassador to create recognition for the new event.
"We normally introduce brand ambassadors for only the year-end mega campaign. We changed the strategy in the first quarter this year to stimulate more frequent purchases," said Ms Suchaya.
She said e-commerce competition will focus on a customer-centric approach, enabling more frequent use of all its services. For instance, users are urged to buy from Shopee, order food via ShopeeFood and pay with ShopeePay.
According to the firm's data from January to February gathered from 30 million keywords, the top searches were shelf, cross-body bag and vacuum cleaner. Meanwhile, the top product categories were home and living, beauty and personal care, and mobile and gadgets. Top products included wallpaper, face masks, smartphones and ball detergents.
Ms Suchaya said users in the provinces have more potential to grow this year as there is strong demand in three areas -- Nonthaburi, Chiang Mai and Songkhla.
For ShopeePay, there was an increase of more than 50% year-on-year for users outside big cities from 2020 to 2021, she said.