Thai society and the internet are inseparable these days. It is the most important channel that society receive news, communicate with one another, watch televisions and TV shows, and be connected closer to businesses.

It is the same for the businesses, it is not possible to leave out the internet channel to connect to the consumers. And it is also not strange anymore to see business leave out the offline channel and focus on only online portals. In the upcoming years, you will see a lot of online-only businesses more in Thailand because of the internet growth in society very widely.

There are many online business models existed already in the online world, which are:

• Sell products
• Advertising and Marketing
• Review and promote products
• Marketplace
• To be in a part of the market place

For the first model, sell a product, it is probably the most common and well-known model. The biggest online product seller is amazon. The benefit of this business is that you do not need a fancy shop because no one is going to see it. You can have as many products as you want since you do not have to worry about the space. All you need is a good website, inventory space, good web hosting, web security, and some people to manage it. That is all then you have your own online shop without too many hassles.

The advertising and marketing model business is simple. It is basically a website of your business but usually, you do not sell your products and services here. Just the company explaining and showing who they are, what they are doing, what they are selling, contact information, and news. An example of this kind of model is Thai Life Insurance. When you do on their website, you cannot buy or sell anything, all you get is the company’s information and how to buy their products and services. It is important for a website to own its website homepage because the internet channel is said to be the most effective channel among the other marketing channels. Every offline business, nowadays, has its own websites for this purpose.

For review and promote products model, usually come in a form of blogs. It is not so typically seen in Thailand but everything has started. An example of this kind of website is vanilla. Vanilla is reviewing cosmetics, including, facial cream, and makeup products. It is considered to be one of the most powerful kinds of marketing because the representative of the website get to try the product and express their own feelings and experiences through the trial they get from the product. Therefore, many businesses offer their products and services to the review bloggers with the exchange of spreading the benefits of the products to their readers. In the meantime, the consumers check out this kind of site for their own knowledge in the decision process.

To give an example of a marketplace model from an online business is, for instance, to offer a service or be a channel where buyers and sellers meet halfway. To visualize this kind of company, we will use Lamudi Thailand as an example. Lamudi is an online-based real estate, gathering all kinds of properties in Thailand together. For real estate agents, brokers, and sellers, the website is the marketing platform, where the business only needs to put their property’s images and information accurately. While for consumers or buyers, Lamudi is a searching platform. Instead of printed material who you have to buy or look for, you can make use of your existed devices; computers, laptops, tablets, or smartphones to search for properties as much as you desire. As a middle man, Lamudi is offering both buyers and sellers a good platform that can give good experiences to both sides.

The last model is to be in a part of a marketplace, which might be the easiest way to sell your products since you do not have to manage anything on the website besides your own product page, images, and information. To give an example of this type of model is LNW Shop. You can sell your products or create your online shop via this website easily. LNW also helps the consumers by providing their customers with an expert team that can help the consumers and sellers accurately via telephone.

Contact the Startup Specialists if you would like any assistance in Sales and Marketing techniques or handholding support for doing business in Thailand

Interesting Reads :

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Starting a business in Thailand

Thailand 4.0 – A Step towards a Digital Future 

Why Internet Marketing is important for small business 

Business Development in Thailand/Asia

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