An announcement
by Bangkok
Post highlighted the new service that Thailand
Post is adding to its logistics services. With e-commerce,
locally-made products from across the country can be sold, bought and
delivered.
E-commerce will be added to the logistics
services of Thailand Post. The service will be offering locally-made products
from across the country.
"The company
spent 10 million baht to launch Thailandpostmart.com, helping local communities
sell their products in a marketplace with special delivery costs," said
Samorn Terdtampiboon, President of Thailand Post.
Thailandpostmart.com was co-developed with BEC
Tero. Through the website, a “digital community” of locally-made products
nationwide is formed and will aim to be the largest distribution channel for
agricultural products, crafts, and food and One Tambon One Product items.
The products
available on the website are grouped into eight categories: halal products,
health and beauty, mail products, best cuisine in Thailand, best provincial
products, locally made products, home and garden, and automotive.
The next phase of
the project would allow integration with at least 5,000 points of sale in the communities
by year-end. Partnerships with the
ministries of Commerce, Industry, Interior, Energy and Agriculture, as well as the
Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives were made in order to bring
more local products to the e-marketplace.
After the
official launch, the website is expected to earn 200 million baht in sales
revenue with an estimated 12,000 stock-keeping units of locally made products
by April 2019.
Once paid, the
products can be delivered within 1-2 days. IOS and Android mobile applications
will be made available soon for easier transactions.
Thailand Post
Senior Executive Vice-President for Marketing and Business Phitsanu
Wanitchaphol said the enterprise will send staff and postmen to select
qualified merchants who have quality products and might possibly be interested
in selling online.
Collaboration with Japanese online
marketplaces will allow for community-made products, such as crafts, jewellery
and other local goods to be exported to Japan by the fourth quarter.
This will benefit from cross-border e-commerce
which may provide competition with Chinese internet giants unloading their
products in Thailand. Cross-border
deliveries will take around seven days.
"We will
create an exchange programme for local products from the two countries,"
Mr Phitsanu said.
Thailand Post
will be launching an e-wallet next month, which they developed with 2C2P. An
alternative mode of payment, e-wallet will allow Thailand Post to wire the
money to the merchant. This will greatly improve the experience since merchants
previously collect payments at Thailand Post counters.
An incentive will
be given to merchants since the fee that they are supposed to pay when doing
withdrawals is 50% cheaper than other global payment platforms.
Several payment
options are given to consumers. They can opt to pay through e-wallet or payment
services like the QR code at Thailand Post counters.
The enterprise is
willing to spend up to 5 billion baht by 2022 in order to implement new sorting
machines for parcels in mail centres countrywide.
In the next five
years, Thailand Post expects to earn 60% of the revenue from logistic services in
both domestic and international delivery; 10% from the e-marketplace and
e-services; 5% from payment services; and 25% from retail and postal services.
Currently, their
revenue comes from 40% express, parcel delivery and logistics; 40% from mail
service; and 20% from retail.