O Shopping operator lowers sales target

Chief executive officer Sung Nak Je said yesterday that this resulted from new players entering the business, as well as existing rivals. A series of heavy promotions at local shopping centres had also created high competition in the market.

The home-shopping market is expected to see 25-per-cent growth to Bt10 billion from Bt7 billion last year. The Stock Exchange of Thailand has listed TV Direct as the market leader with sales of Bt2.2 billion. 

The double-digit growth in the market continues to attract new players. A recent entry is Shop Channel, managed by a joint venture of Central Department Store, Saha Group’s ICC International and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation.

Additionally, in the past two years, GS Shop, South Korea’s leading home-shopping operator, formed a partnership with three leading Thai companies – The Mall Group; CP All, the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores; and TrueVisions, the country’s leading subscription-based TV operator – to launch True Select, a home-shopping channel on TrueVisions’ platform. True Select channel ranked as number two in terms of sales last year.

However, Peera Lucksanapirak, marketing communications director at GMM CJ O Shopping, said the company would see growth this year with a sales target of Bt500 million. After launching the home-shopping channel in July, the company had registered Bt100 million in revenue by the end of last year. 

The company has prepared a campaign to boost sales through this current hot season and aims to expand its customer base to 100,000 this year from 50,000 last year. Peera declined to disclose how much the firm plans to invest in the campaign. 

Currently, O Shopping channel is available on satellite and cable TV networks including GMM Z, PSI, DTV and Cable Thai Holdings.