Ezbuy, a Singaporean e-commerce website, has expanded its footprint into Thailand to pave the way for online cross-border trading.
The Thai operation has grown rapidly in the past six months and now has 200,000 customers, said Chong Siong, country manager of Ezbuy Thailand, which operates www.ezbuy.co.th.
"Buying products from our website will give shoppers lower shipping costs than if they buy directly from overseas online stores," he said.
Ezbuy helps users source products from China, the US, South Korea and Taiwan. Acting as a middleman between overseas e-commerce retailers and consumers, Ezbuy takes care of everything from purchasing items to importing and shipping them.
The company also has a number of warehouses overseas where products are repacked and then shipped to Thai customers.
About 80% of Thai customers are 18-45 years old. Ezbuy Thailand will offer more local products by attracting small and medium-sized enterprises to sell their items on the platform and giving local merchants a chance to export to other countries.
Next year, Ezbuy Thailand is set to sell both imported and local products at a 50:50 ratio, compared with almost all of its current product offerings coming from abroad.
Mr Chong said Ezbuy aims to increase the number customers in Thailand by 10 times next year and double local staff to 60.
Xue Bin Vincent, co-founder and director of Ezbuy Singapore, said the company will this month launch the Prime Membership scheme, which will allow subscribers to enjoy a flat overseas shipping fee compared to a normal shipping fee of 50 baht per 1 kilogramme.
The Prime Membership fee will cost 1,990 baht annually and will earn other benefits such as discounts for other products and services in the near future.
Ezbuy has a presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
"Thailand has the highest growth potential, and we will use more resources to further penetrate the market thanks to tech-savvy users and the growing economy," Mr Xue said.
In the first quarter, the company raised additional funds worth US$20 million from venture capital funds to rapidly expand the business overseas.
"We plan to expand into Vietnam and the Philippines in 2017 to capitalise on the growth of e-commerce in Asean," Mr Xue said.
"Cross-border e-commerce opens opportunities for local operators to import products in large volumes to resell locally while individual users will have more choices to access products from abroad," Mr Xue said.