New platforms drive e-commerce

True plans to provide a B2B2C (business to business to customer) platform to drive the e-commerce market, and is also developing a social-media platform and mobile application to support people’s lifestyles through the customer-to-customer (C2C) environment. 

Meanwhile, e-payments provider and electronic market place Paysbuy will provide a new payment service to drive the e-commerce industry.

Darunporn Jirakitanusorn, assistant director, e-commerce business, at True Digital Content and Media – an e-commerce market place – said the company was now driving three e-commerce websites: www.weloveshopping.com, for C2C business; www.itruemart.com, a business-to-customer (B2C) site for the Thai market; and www.itruelife.com, a B2C website for the Chinese market. 

The company next year will provide a social-network platform and mobile application to support the C2C marketplace. It will also provide a B2B2C platform.

“We expect to officially announce a new social-media platform and mobile application – True app marker by itruemart. This will provide a platform and application templates that allow its sellers able to create an application by themselves. It has invited around 20-30 sellers to participate in the new application by the end of this month, before officially launching the new application early next year,” she said.

The B2B2C platform, meanwhile, is designed for e-commerce newcomers, she said, adding that business-to-business-to-consumer is an emerging e-commerce model that combines B2B (business to business) and B2C for a complete product or service transaction. 

B2B2C is a collaboration process that aims to create mutually beneficial service and product delivery channels. It is also a business model where online, or e-commerce, businesses and portals reach new markets and customers by partnering with consumer-oriented product and service businesses. 

A business developing a product, service or solution partners with another business to use a particular service, such as an e-commerce website, and portal. The two business combine forces and promote mutually beneficial products, services and/or solutions. 

Darunporn said True Digital Content and Media would provide B2B2C marketing in the second half of next year, expecting it to drive traffic for the company’s C2C market place.

The C2C e-commerce website now has 500,000 visitors and 3 million page views a day, and comprises around 300,000 sellers or online shops.

 

International reach

The company also intends to provide B2C more widely on the international stage.  Having opened www.iturelife.com for onsumer products via the online channel in Shanghai a couple of years ago, it will expand its customer base to Europe, the US, India and the Philippines next year, she said. 

The company will also provide a food and digital-content platform, including True music and e-book, to sell through the B2C channel for the Thai market by the end of next year, via www.itruemart.com. 

“We have a goal to provide e-commerce to the international market and to be No1 for e-commerce business in the high-growth-potential Southeast Asia within the next three or four years. 

“Therefore, we will develop and build an e-commerce platform to support all categories, products and lifestyles of our customers, including social media, website, smart phone and tablet,” said the assistant director.

She added that e-commerce market in Thailand now had many new competitors entering the fray, both local and international companies, which meant a much broader range of options for Thais when it came to shopping online. 

Around 50 per cent of Thai online users have made at least one e-purchase, and efficient and trustworthy online payments will be an important factor driving the e-commerce market in Thailand, she said.

Darunporn said that this year, B2C e-commerce sites would account for around 4 per cent or US$5.6 billion (Bt177 billion) of the total retail market in the Kingdom, which is estimated to be worth about US$140 billion. 

However, the firm expects C2C business growth of as much as 30 per cent this year, and B2C business growth of around four to five times next year.

 

New payment channels

Somwang Luangpaiboonsri, general manager of Paysbuy, an online payment service provider and e-commerce market place operator, said e-commerce in Thailand had high growth potential, and the company’s direction was therefore to provide online transaction and payment services that support the new lifestyle of customers. 

Paysbuy now allows members of both China UnionPay and American Express credit cards to pay online shopping fees via www.paysbuy.com. 

Moreover, it has also linked up with Thailand Post and Family Mart to allow online shoppers able to pay transaction and payment fees at their counter and cashier services.  

“We try to provide new channels and new services to support online payment service, so that customers or online shoppers will find it easier to pay transaction fees for both offline and online transactions such as online direct banking and virtual prepaid card, which will drive the e-commerce market as a whole,” said Somwang. 

The company is developing a new platform to support online shops that offer their products via social media such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as through mobile devices. 

The GM said online shoppers now paid their service fees for around 100,000 transactions per month via www.paysbuy.com. The site has some 9,000 online shops and about 600,000 account members. 

Paysbuy expects its business to roughly double this year, he added.