JD Central, the renowned e-commerce platform in Thailand, has re-evaluated its approach to improving customer experience.
They hope to earn offline shoppers’ trust and maintain triple-digit growth as they battle fierce competition.
The Kingdom of Thailand had around 48 million e-commerce users in 2020, according to JD Central.
However, e-commerce penetration only reached 2.3% of total retail sales. Korlarp Suwacharangkul, chief marketing of JD Central, said in a virtual press conference: “Thailand’s e-commerce market still has a lot of opportunity to grow as online retail enjoys only a low single-digit percentage of total retail value.”
“We still have to reach out to those in the offline retail market,” Mr. Korlarp added.
The e-commerce segment experienced a 20% growth in customers between 2017 and 2020. But Thailand’s e-commerce penetration of the total retail market was 2.3% last year compared to 41.2% in China and 26.2% in South Korea, an eMarketer research said.
Furthermore, Thailand saw household e-commerce penetration of only 8% versus 27.3% in China.
“We need to grow the market by transitioning to both offline and hybrid shoppers [people who occasionally shop online and those who shop specifically on a brand’s official website] to online platforms by giving them value,” Mr. Korlarp stated.
A consumer behavior survey found that the key barrier to buying online is trust.
According to a survey of 1,000 people, the top three concerns among customers while shopping online are delivered products that don’t match the description (79%), damaged products (56%), and late deliveries (38%).
JD Central launched the “Joy Sure Tua Jing” strategy to reach hybrid and offline users.
It focuses on genuine products and drives an end-to-end buying customer experience. Besides, JD Central will offer a wider range of products, optimize deliveries and enhance its after-sales service based on the strategy.
The company has also developed a cartoon character named “Nong Joy” to create a friendliness perception among customers.
It is the first time that JD Central relaunches its new strategy since it began operating in Thailand. Its objective is “to reach more users and those upcountry as well since currently, our users are mostly from Bangkok and other big cities in the 18- 44 age bracket.”
