Sahas Treetipbutt, president of the Thai e-Commerce Association, said the association this year will focus on reducing the cost of logistics in e-commerce businesses from 15-20 per cent to 5-10 per cent of total business operating expenses. It will also work with Krung Thai Bank to provide an electronic-business transaction gateway for business.

"The association is negotiating with Thailand Post to reduce the logistics charges from 15-20 per cent to 5-10 per cent to reduce operating costs of business as a whole, and to create competitiveness with international e-commerce businesses since they have logistics charges of around 5-10 per cent of their total investment," said Sahas.

He also said e-commerce transactions in Thailand are not popular compared with overseas. E-commerce businesses in Thailand do not have a huge amount of money to invest in operating and marketing costs, with a lack of financial and business knowledge to support business efficiency.

"The association will also gather small e-commerce businesses into groups to increase efficiency and productivity," said Sahas.

Worawoot Ounjai, vice president of the association, said the association would encourage e-commerce businesses to apply for membership of the association so they could negotiate with logistics suppliers. The association now has 400 members from a total of more than 8,000 e-commerce businesses in the country. It also expects to increase promotion campaigns such as holding e-commerce fairs and registering members free of charge, hoping to register 1,000 new members by the end of this year.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation