Online shopping in Thailand up by 27%
More than half of Thai internet users have used the Internet to make a purchase—increasing the market for online shopping by 27 percent in the past two years—according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits.
Conducted from October to November 2007, polled 26,312 internet users in 48 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America and the Middle East. In Thailand, 500 internet users aged 15 and above were interviewed.
According to our latest online shopping survey, 61 percent of Thais internet users claimed that they have shopped online, up from 48 percent over the previous survey in October 2005 representing a growth of 27 percent.
“Online shopping in Thailand is growing rapidly during the past two years – partly attributed to the increasing internet penetration, the well developed commercial sites offering greater product variety, an improved security system and logistic,” said Usana Chantarklum, Director, Customized Research, The Nielsen Company, Thailand “ Shopping online is also less complicated than it was before. Commercial sites can be potential competitors which retailers should not underestimate.”
Globally, the most popular and purchased items over the Internet are Books (41% purchased in the past three months), Clothing/Accessories/Shoes (36%), DVDs / Games (24%), Airline Tickets (24%) and Electronic Equipment (23%).
Across Asia Pacific, DVDs/Games is the most popular purchase item among Thai internet consumers, leading the region at 35 percent, followed by Books ( 30%)Computer Hardware (27%), Airline Ticket/ Reservations and Cosmetics / Nutrition Suppliers (same 24%) and Clothing /Accessories/Shoes (23%) in the past three months.
Selecting Online Shopping Sites
Similar to the world’s online population, Thai online shoppers tend to stick to the shopping sites they are familiar with, with 52 percent saying they buy mostly from the same site. “This shows the importance of capturing the new online shoppers as they make their first purchases on the Internet. If shopping sites can capture them early, and create a positive shopping experience, they will likely capture their loyalty and their money,” said Usana
In selecting sites on which to shop, 35 percent of Thai online shoppers were attracted by special offer, 32 percent used a search engine, 30 percent just surfed around to find the best commercial sites and 26 percent compared the price from different websites.
Internet usage
In Thailand, consumers access internet everyday mostly for checking their emails (81%), instant messaging (37%), Chat group ( 31%) , searching for products (27%) and social networking (26%).
Source: Thailand4.com
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