Anna handbag store, thousands of other small online merchants bank on Rakuten TARAD.com for marketpl

Coming from a science background, and with minimal experience in retailing or information technology, the support she received from her e-commerce consultant (ECC) proved invaluable.

She is one of the many small merchants the portal site is using to woo more business. Rakuten TARAD.com currently hosts more than 300,000 traders, with many of the online stores set up as a new venture or to complement an existing business. 

A recently published survey by the National Statistics Office showed that 68.5 per cent of e-commerce businesses in Thailand were small enterprises employing fewer than five people.

“I’d always dreamed of running my own business and had opened a food stall with friends, but the competition was really tough and it was hard to build a strong customer base,” Nawaporn said. “While searching for a brand-name handbag, 

“I realised prices in the US were much lower than in Thailand and began to consider how I could set up a store in Thailand. I was attracted by Rakuten TARAD.com’s offer of helping me set up a store for free. 

“I quickly moved the store to the [marketplace’s] Premium Mall, where I was assigned an ECC. They gave me great advice and we were able to exchange ideas on how to boost sales and visitors. With the ECC’s support, we came up with a contest idea where customers could win prizes at my site. This helped boost my store’s profile and build trust between me and my customers, providing a great start to my e-commerce business. The great thing is, even three years after the store opened, my ECC is still there to give me advice,” she added.

The Anna brand-name store has proved highly popular with Thai customers, with a 10-per-cent increase in year-on-year revenue since it was founded in 2010. 

Nawaporn puts much of her success down to making sure she has the right products and building good relationships with customers.

Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, founder and managing director of Rakuten TARAD.com, said his company was ready to provide guidance to clients on how to create and manage their own online store and build up a customer base. 

“Starting your own business can be a daunting project and presents many challenges. At Rakuten TARAD.com we aim to make the process easier by providing an e-commerce consultant to guide each new merchant through the initial stages of setting up their store and ensure they get off to a good start. 

The ECC continues to act as a mentor to the merchant on their business venture, advising on how to promote their store and keeping them up-to-date with trends and developments in e-commerce,” he said.

Among the key considerations for new merchants when starting up an e-commerce store are engaging customers, ensuring product distribution is reliable and offering a secure payments system.

Creating trust among potential consumers is essential to the success of operating any online store, he said.

At Rakuten TARAD.com, ECCs are assigned to business owners to ensure merchants have all the information and tools they need to stay at the forefront of e-commerce. Each ECC works as part of Rakuten University, a training institute that offers courses for merchants on how to optimise the virtual shopping channel for sales. 

They also advise merchants on how they can customise their online storefront, including how to display products and provide additional value by personalising their store and packaging, allowing the merchant to take ownership of their brand to help them create brand loyalty and drive sales, Pawoot said.