Groupon keen to boost e-commerce here
Groupon, the large global daily-deal service provider, has set up shop in Thailand with the aim of being number one in the local market.
Joel Neoh, the vice president and general manager of Groupon South East Asia and India, said Thailand was the 48th county in the world and 13th in Asia Pacific that the company had entered. Thailand was a priority market for Groupon as the country’s e-commerce market is growing dramatically, especially in among small-and-medium businesses. And less than 5 per cent of them were active online, and getting benefit from the Internet.
“It means that there are huge opportunities for us to encourage them to go online and to
be partnered with them to go together,” Neoh said.
The company’s goal to be number one means it wants to be the destination where merchants want to sell goods and services online, and to be the site for people when they want to buy goods and service over the Internet.
“E-commerce is very dynamic, sale revenues does not define number one in the long-run of business. Our approach in Thailand is we want to be number one in the heart of people and merchants,” Neoh said.
With the company’s large and strong networks established in 47 countries, Neoh said Thai people would get the largest technologies and proven services.
Groupon Thailand’s president and managing director Trip Wagoner said the company’s business direction in Thailand and its strong position to support e-commerce would give the sector a further boost in Thailand.
Since the company started in the market in March, it has averaged between 100 and 120 deals per month. It is also growing by between 50 to 100 per cent month-by-month. Currently, it has several hundred merchants.
“Numbers of merchants and number of deals are not the final factors for success for this kind of business, but it is about the great deal. Our deals, by average, offer 50 to 90 per cent discount,” Wagoner said.
Sale volume was not critical to success, but great merchants and active members were the company’s goal.
The beauty of Groupon’s facility is to help local small-and-medium-sized firms here expand their business with low cost and low risk. By partnering with Groupon, local businesses could access and benefit from the company’s great global network, he said. They could adopt the latest technologies, and share consumer’s database.
“We can share deals in Groupon’s network in many countries that can help small-and-medium business in Thailand to go global,” Neoh said.
He said the e-commerce industry in Thailand would change and Groupon would be a part of it. Groupon would invest to develop e-commerce here and help businesses grow together.
Currently, the company has over 100 million members around the world, with over 30 million active members buying deals every month. It has over 100,000 merchants active a month.
