The key challenge for brands looking to go online successfully in Thailand is a lack of actionable data and insights into consumer behavior. Should they build their own platform or leverage existing sites?
Scraping together details of metrics like web sessions, device used, and peak shopping times give a generic and high-level overview of the industry but what’s more difficult to ascertain is the mapping of consumer segmentation; consumer income levels, demographics, popular categories, and other key takeaways brands can utilize when determining their go-to market strategy.
Through an in-depth survey aimed at understanding the Thai online consumer, ecommerceIQ pieced together a holistic understanding of how to do ecommerce successfully in the market.
There was a total of 1,249 online survey respondents spread across the breadth of Thailand to represented the largest captive audience: people with existing access to the internet. They, in theory, would be more amenable towards buying online.
Key Takeaways
- From a shopper’s perspective, Lazada and Shopee are quite different. Lazada has built its strength in the Mobile & Electronics category, whereas Shopee’s focus is Fashion & Beauty.
- There’s no way around Facebook and Google in Thailand, as these channels are the only way to effectively reach customers online. Offline ads like billboards, magazines, and newspapers still play an important role in the overall media mix.
- Thailand is still early in terms of ecommerce development and this can be seen from its online shopper profiles. Most shoppers look for bargains online and spend small amounts per order, in the low THB 500 – 1,000 range.
- The majority of online shoppers is between 16-34 years old and is evenly split between Bangkok and Non-Bangkok provinces.
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