Social commerce platform LINE Shopping targets 150% growth in the number of participating shops and a rise of 200% in gross merchandise value (GMV) this year, thanks to dynamic growth activities connected to social commerce, which now accounts for 61% of total e-commerce value.
At the end of 2021, LINE Shopping had 370,000 shops on its platform and booked 5.3 billion baht in GMV.
To bolster engagement with the platform, LINE on Tuesday unveiled its new vision, called "Liberty to win", aiming at unlocking all limitations for online shop owners to bring about sustainable success.
Lertad Supadhiloke, head of e-commerce at LINE Thailand, said Line Shopping achieved 97% increase in GMV in the first quarter, compared with the same period in 2021.
The trend was in line with global social commerce which has become an important channel with the potential to satisfy shoppers, he said.
According to consulting firm Accenture, social commerce in the global market is expected to grow 2.5 times from US$492 billion in 2021 to $1.2 trillion in 2025.
"Core success of social commerce comprises customer engagement, loyalty and efficiently creating sellers' branding," said Mr Lertad.
LINE Shopping is gearing up to increase awareness of the platform's key features that underline the development potential of Thai small and medium-sized enterprises and strengthen them for more robust competition in the e-commerce ecosystem.
Under the "Liberty to win" vision, the company provides support for sellers in three key areas, he said.
The first is to seek partnerships to support shop management services through the platform's application programming interface.
LINE Shopping has partnered with major e-commerce service providers, such as aCommerce, Zort and MyCloudFulfilment, to assist shops in dealing with a large inventory and those operating on various platforms.
The second is to boost shopping experience to draw traffic to the shops, capitalising on LINE Points and promotion campaigns.
The last approach is to support knowledge building among sellers through self-development activities, such as a sellers' academy, as well as create an online community for knowledge and information exchange with senior sellers.
LINE Shopping is gearing up to better understand sellers and draw the interest of buyers, Mr Lertad said.
Under the move, LINE will assist brands in managing their sales more efficiently and professionally via a shop management system linked with a chat function and support brands to create branding and storytelling via its tools, such as Rich Message and Rich Menu on the LINE Official Account.
The platform will also help brands gather a fan base as well as drive sales through promotion campaigns, he said.