Rise in e-commerce market value

Retail and wholesale, the accommodation industry, and manufacturing will be the top three categories in the e-commerce market by the end of this year, said ETDA chief executive officer Surangkana Wayuparb.
She said her agency had conducted a survey of 527,324 e-commerce businesses nationwide between April and this month to arrive at those figures.
The survey covered eight categories: manufacturing, retail and wholesale, transportation, accommodation services, information and communication, insurance, arts, entertainment and leisure, and other services.
Of the Bt2.52-trillion value expected this year, business to business (B2B) will account for Bt1.38 trillion, or 54.74 per cent, followed by business to customers (B2C) at Bt729.2 billion (28.89 per cent), and business to government (B2G) at Bt423 billion (16.37 per cent).
The retail and wholesale industry will hold the largest proportion of the e-commerce market at 34.55 per cent, valued at Bt731 billion, followed by accommodation services at 30.35 per cent (Bt643 billion) and manufacturing at 16.23 per cent (Bt343 billion). Surangkana said one of the factors driving e-commerce growth was the increasing number of Internet users in Thailand, now at around 30 million. Another factor is high competition in the B2C segment and promotional campaigns for Internet shopping.

Contributing factors
The government’s “Thailand 4.0” digital-economy scheme and the rapid evolution of technology were also factors.
The survey also found that business owners that offer their products and services online wanted the government to provide tax privileges, incentive funding, and cybersecurity.
She said the ETDA was negotiating with the Revenue Department on providing fixed-cost tax relief for small and medium-sized enterprises that earn revenue between Bt3 million to Bt5 million from online business. She expects the negotiations to wind up in the near future.
Surangkana said the e-commerce market in 2015 has valued at Bt2.24 trillion, divided into B2B at Bt1.33 trillion, or 59.45 per cent of the total, B2C at Bt509 billion (22.72 per cent) and B2G at Bt400 billion (17.83 per cent).
She said accommodation services, retail and wholesale and manufacturing were the top three categories for the e-commerce market last year.
“E-commerce is an important mechanism to apply digital technology for future development of economic and social well-being,” she said.