E-commerce booming, mega-sales planned
JD CENTRAL expects the Thai e-commerce market to cover 10 per cent of all trade within the next five years.
Spurring that goal along, ShopBack has joined hands with 150 business partners to stage an online mega-sale. The firm expects its business to grow six-fold by the end of this year.
Jirasak Chirathivat, head of customer strategy at JD Central, said the Thai e-commerce market had high potential for growth with consumer habits changing as confidence swells in online shopping security.
People are becoming more familiar with online shopping platforms and services are improving, ensuring a better customer experience, he said.
To meet increasing demand, the firm will this year launch www.jb.co.th. The site is being tested now, offering “fast-moving consumer goods” (FMCG) such as beauty, fashion and maternity products and electronics spanning more than 100 brands.
“Our target is shoppers between 25 and 40 years old,” said Jirasak. “The site has more than 10,000 products available online. We’re planning a promotional campaign and ‘super sale days’ on September 9, November 11 and December12 – promoted as 9/9, 11/11 and 12/12.”
JD anticipates that the super-sale period will boost sales more than five times, with the fourth quarter the “high season” for online sales.
Jirasak said the firm was also planning e-retail shops to support businesses seeking to make the transition to online and omni-channel formats. It expects the more than 10 business units within Central Group to adopt the strategy and move all of their products and services online next year.
JD is meanwhile studying delivery methods that would ensure customers in Bangkok get their purchases within 12 hours of ordering them on its website.
The Thai Retailers Association recently predicted that the total Thai retail market would be valued at more than Bt3 trillion by the end of this year. It said retail via online channels and B2C would represent around 3 per cent of the total by that time, earning revenues of around Bt10 billion.
Kawin Prachanukul, country general manager of ShopBack, a “lifestyle portal” offering cash back for online shoppers, said his firm and its 150 business partners – including JD Central, Pomelo, FoodPanda, Grab, Eatigo and Konvy – were conducting a mega-sale called ShopFest.
It runs today through January 3 at www.shopfest.com and via the ShopBack phone application, with prices discounted 10-50 per cent and cash back from 0.5 per cent to 35 per cent.
Kawin said the firm had 600,000 customers and the site was getting 500,000 visits per moth. Cash-back paid out last year totalled Bt900 million and transactions were Bt100 million per month.
