Thailand Post has set an ambitious goal for its international business to achieve 4 billion baht in revenue, growth of 14%, expanding cross-border e-commerce through a partnership with the world's largest marketplace eBay.
The company has added new services to help local online retailers deliver their products abroad for, on average, a 20% lower fee than its global competitors such as DHL.
President Smorn Terdthampiboon said eBay is the most powerful website for Thai cross-border e-commerce retailers, with more than 10,000 merchants.
The company will connect its shopping tools with eBay in June to expand its service.
"Connecting our service with the shopping tools of eBay will help Thai retailers capitalise on cross-border e-commerce at [lower costs]," said Mrs Smorn.
Thailand Post has also officially launched its ePacket service to enhance competitiveness for Thai online merchants.
EPacket is targeted at merchants sending parcels weighing no more than 2 kilogrammes to 16 countries, including Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea and the US.
The delivery service fee ranges from 120-1,000 baht, depending on destination. Recipients will receive the parcel within three to nine days depending on destination.
"The service costs 400 baht per delivery, on average, for parcels weighing 0.5 to 1 kilogramme," she said.
"While the ePacket service takes longer than competing services, the price for it is very attractive, suitable for non-urgent deliveries," she said.
Currently DHL controls 45% of the cross-border e-commerce service in Thailand, with Thailand Post maintaining 30%.
Thailand Post expects its ePacket service to generate 100 million baht in revenue. Last year Thailand Post booked total revenue of 27 billion baht, of which 3.5 billion, or 13% was generated through its international service.
Thailand Post delivered 24 million EMS and parcels abroad last year or 2 million pieces per month, through its EMS World and EMS One Price services.
Mrs Smorn said consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer activities are significantly growing in the country, in line with changing consumer behaviour. The arrival of giant e-commerce platform providers such as Alibaba, JD.com and their affiliates through local partnerships are also helping boost the e-commerce ecosystem.
According to International Postal Corporation, total cross border e-commerce sales globally in 2020 are expected to reach US$ 900 billion (28.9 trillion baht), or three time higher than total sales in 2015.
The Asia Pacific e-commerce market by 2020 is predicted to double the size of Western Europe and North America combined.