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Published on January 21, 2008

Songyot Kanthamanont, managing director of Grand Planet Enterprise, which operates www.readyplanet.com, a provider of ready-made websites, said there was no formula to guarantee success in e-commerce.

One needs to keep learning all the time, he said because technology changes rapidly. All traders have to "learn while working" to sustain their positions in the market.

"You'll see many traders who were successful six years ago but are now out of the picture as they have not kept pace with changes.

"For example, the current trend is social networking, as 'community' have become important. It's necessary now to make customers feel they are part of a fan club," says Songyot.

Prasit Worachatvanich, adviser to AR Information and Publication and a founder of www.thaiamazon.com, said e-commerce is in essence a service business.

"If you reply to e-mails late, you may lose customers. One day in e-mail time is like a week in real time," he said.

Theeravudh Vongvibulsin, managing director of Asian Star Trading, which operates www.tohome.com, said some people mistook e-commerce as an easy operation that can be done as part-time work.

"You must have good services including call centres. You need adequate product descriptions on websites. Some people have had to shut down their websites as they take two weeks to deliver their goods," warned Theeravudh.

To be successful, an e-commerce trader has to focus on various factors, including customer relations, offer a range of products and competitive pricing, prompt delivery and also arrange for convenient methods of payment, he said.

Urassaya Kaewsrichandra, managing director of Sentimental Plus that operates www.handicraftmall.com, said most people start building a website when they should organise their product line first.

"Don't think that just having a website and great products are enough. You need to do marketing and you need to be patient and work hard," she said. Sentimental Plus has positioned staff around the clock to ensure the firm can respond quickly to enquiries within 10 minutes, added Urassaya.

Songyot said traders need to ask themselves whether consumers would find their websites, whether they would stay with them or switch to rival sites that are only two clicks away.

Traders need to offer simplicity. Customers are also looking for credibility, for they need to trust that the sites will deliver their orders.

Songyot, Prasit, Theeravudh, and Urassaya were speaking at a seminar hosted by the Commerce Ministry on Wednesday. They all say the future is bright for e-commerce.

"Secondary-school and university students are accustomed to the Internet. These young people will become customers in the next five years," said Songyot.

"I'm not saying they would no longer shop at stores. But once they start working in offices, they probably won't have as much time for shopping," he said. Theeravudh said www.tohome.com has worked with Kasikornbank on providing a secure credit-card payment system. He claimed that last year the number of online credit-card fraud was nearly zero.

Pichaya Changsorn

The Nation