E-commerce website Tarad.com expects sales growth of 81% this year thanks to a sharp increase in transactions via mobile devices.
Founder and managing director Pawoot Pongvitayapanu said the value of mobile commerce accounts for 51% of Tarad’s total transactions, a sharp increase from 11% last year.
Tarad.com founder Pawoot Pongvitayapanu (right) joins ISMED president Suwanchai Lohawattanakul (centre) at the launch of the SME Global Connect project. Kosol Nakachol
The company formed a partnership with Line Corporation three months ago to provide products via its messaging services.
Some 6.5 million users who have downloaded Rakuten's stickers are automatically “followers” and receive instant messages containing product details five times a week.
“We found the most ideal time [to send messages] was 9.30pm, resulting in thousands of orders,” said Mr Pawoot.
Last month’s report by the National Statistical Office (NSO) said the value of e-commerce transactions excluding e-auctions topped 400 billion baht in 2012, of which 19% were international sales.
Of that total, nearly 30% were business-to-customer (B2C) transactions.
Last year, the value of transactions grew by 30%, as consumers preferred to shop online. Tarad’s sales soared 71%, said Mr Pawoot, who is also president of the Thai e-Commerce Association.
"The more severe the [political] crisis is, the better e-commerce businesses performs, as consumers are more likely to shop online,” he said.
Tarad.com is currently rebranding its webpage, which was taken over five years ago by Rakuten Inc, Japan’s biggest e-commerce site.
The new website will be launched by mid-2014, migrating 2,000 premium merchants on Tarad.com to the new site.
Tarad currently has 250,000 merchants, rising by about 5,000 per year.
The NSO said almost 80% of e-commerce transactions are B2C, while 19% are business-to-business and 1% business-to-government excluding e-auctions.
Of the total, 67% are small enterprises with no more than five employees.
Tarad.com joined the SMEs Global Connect project launched by the Institute for Small and Medium Enterprises Development.
Under the project, workshops are held for SMEs in fashion design, spa products and health care, snacks and green products to create a digital marketing space to sell products to China, Britain and the US.
SMEs such as Triple Pim Co has been struggling to sell his products through its own website for two years with three programmers changing in the process, said managing director Yuttana Anothaisintawee.
Under the brand ReMaker, which makes bags and accessories out of used clothes, tyres and billboards, some 80% of the products are sold to foreign customers.