What's happening in E-commerce in Thailand?
As iPrice's 'Map of E-Commerce Thailand' clearly shows, the competition in this sector is getting stiffer as we enter the third quarter of 2017.
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A Map of E-Commerce Thailand
The competition in the Thai E-commerce market is getting stiffer as we enter the third quarter of 2017. Amazon has announced that it is entering Southeast Asia, starting in Singapore. This entry could significantly alter the e-commerce market, not only in Singapore but also the whole region.
Meanwhile, iPrice has released its first interactive E-commerce study (The Map of E-commerce Thailand), comparing 38 e-commerce websites in Thailand. Users can filter e-commerce information based on different parameters, such as traffic (based on Similarweb), application downloads, and social media followers.
The data was gathered from April to June 2017. Let’s see how e-commerce has progressed in the past quarter and how it might change over future periods. Here are five interesting findings from the interactive content.
1. The King of E-Commerce in Thailand (Traffic and Social Media)
The king of e-commerce in Thailand in terms of traffic and social media followers is Lazada.
Although the company is the winner in almost every category, Lazada needs to be prepared for the entry of Amazon into Southeast Asia. Here are details of Lazada’s impressive performance during the period:
o The highest traffic in Thailand (41,680,000 visits)
o The highest number of apps installed (50,000,000 downloads)
o The highest number of followers on LINE (18,894,000 followers)
o The highest number of followers on Facebook (17,539,000 followers)
o The highest number of employees on Linkedin (656 employees)
o 6th in Instagram followers, definitely not its forte, but the company can still can catch up with the front-runner, which is Carnival with 261,000 followers. Lazada’s Instagram following is 84,800 as of now.
Lazada entered Southeast Asia in early 2012. With its aggressive expansion in six countries, Lazada has earned a strong reputation and has increased its customer base continually. With the advantage of operating in 6 countries, its social media numbers include people in all six countries.
2. Top 10 websites in Thailand are mostly tech-oriented and general-purpose
Based on traffic, the top 10 websites in Thailand are general-purpose and tech websites.
Here, smaller branded fashion sites have had an impact. Thai people who shop for fashion products buy with individual brands in mind rather than through general e-commerce sites. These brands on social media have produced far more stylish and trendy clothes than what is found on the e-commerce websites.
Konvy is the only fashion website that is listed in the top 10 based on traffic. The company offers cosmetics and skin care products. Konvy is doing a great job in closing the gap in the Thai market in which big cosmetics and skincare websites are scarce.
3. Fierce Rivalry
The three biggest e-commerce websites in Thailand are Lazada, 11street and Shoppe. They are all international firms that have expanded to take up opportunities in the kingdom. Fourth place is occupied by Chilindo, a Thai-based e-commerce site that shows good potential to beat international players with a one-of-a-kind service that allows customers to buy through auctions.
The rise of 11street in Southeast Asia is something other e-commerce companies should closely watch . SK Planet officially launched 11street in Thailand in February. With its competitive edge in Korean branding and product variety, 11street has been welcomed by Thais in the latest period. Plus, 11street’s aggressive integrated marketing communication e.g., outdoor advertisements in Siam BTS stations, ad displays on commuter routes, the brand has rapidly gained recognition in Thailand and has given the company the second highest rank in traffic. Although the monthly traffic is five times less than that of Lazada, 11street CEO, Jeon Hong Cheol sees a big opportunity for his company to become the leading Korean e-commerce firm in the market.
The second-runner-up in terms of traffic goes to Shopee, which is a customer-to-customer (c2c) business that allows customers to sell items online. It has just received a new round of funding to expand into the business-to-customer (b2c) market. Shopee focuses on mobile applications. With its intuitive interface, people can easily sell and buy once the application has been installed. The app has more than one million downloads as of June 2017. Thus, the traffic on the website has increased, garnering third place on the list.
4. Social Media Winner: Traffic, App Downloads, and Facebook
Chilindo has been operating in Thailand for 4 years and excelled in three areas compared to local players. Its unique business model allows customers to buy products through auctions that start from one Baht. Chilindo has the highest number of visitors compared to local competitors, with average monthly visits of more than three million. They have 500,000 app downloads and 3,510,000 likes on Facebook. Chilindo is very active on Facebook, posting engaging content like videos and gifs which display the fun products they sell.
LINE King
LINE is one of the most popular platforms in Thailand. Of the top 10 e-commerce companies using LINE, 8 of them are Thai merchants. These include Wemall, Karmarts, Powerbuy, Jaymart, Pomelo, Shop 24, Central Online and Beauticool. Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia where LINE dominates the messaging market. Thus, international players like Lazada and Shopee must utilise the LINE application to better communicate with their Thai customers.
Instagram Queen
Carnival started as a small street fashion store in Siam Square. It rapidly grew and entered the online market with various street brands. Carnival has 261,000 followers on Instagram which beats Lazada in this platform.
Carnival invests time in creating beautiful visuals for their products. This is because they want to illustrate their products in a visually appealing way. In addition, Carnival conveniently provides detailed information on the products, such as size, colour, price, discount and contact channels.
5. Offline Stores go Online
J.I.B is a good example of how a physical store has ventured into business online. Founder Somyos opened his first computer store at Zear Rangsit. The business has since expanded to more than 140 stores.
Somyos, learned from Pawoot at tarad.com to place a call-to-action button on his website. After customers were able to order online, the outcome was surprising. Within one month, he received 800,000 Baht from his online channel. Consequently, he started to focus on e-commerce. J.I.B is sixth in traffic with 2,450,000 monthly visits.
J.I.B is followed by the most famous department store in the country, Central. It has joined the e-commerce market under “Central Online”. It is ranked seventh by monthly traffic with 2,039,500 visits. With its mission statement to bring the department store to you in just one click, Central Online will be able to utilise their fame and long history in the department store business to go up against the big players in the e-commerce space.
You can find out much more by using the interactive content map. Please go to The Map of E-commerce Thailand
