The impact and efficiency of developing online store technology for major supermarkets in Bangkok

This report was conducted to assess the impact and efficiency of developing online shopping technology for major supermarkets in Bangkok, by looking at the industry internationally, to find out what and how other organisations are doing now in online shopping industry, which allows them to deliver a high quality online shopping service, to help the traditional brick and mortar (B&M) retailers to expend their businesses.Then compare with Bangkok’s major supermarket player BigC, looking at the online shopping system and business models it is using now, see if any business model or technology in other countries can be applied here in Bangkok for BigC, in order to improving the their online service standard.Based on market data from UBS Securities (Thailand) Ltd. 2014, after Thailand launched its 3G service in mid of 2013, within less than one year, the Internet penetration rate of the entire country has reached 46% of its total population (67.9m), this is reaching the point that took China over 3 years to achieve, and Thailand is expecting to exceed the internet penetration rate of China by year 2015 after the launch of 4G service. However with such a high Internet penetration rate, the online sales in Thailand is only contribute 0.2% for the country’s retail sales, where at China and US contribute 8% and 8.7% to their retail sales respectively. Moreover the online spending per transection per head in Thailand is almost 80 times lower than China, given that Thailand’s purchasing power GDP per capita (ppp) 2013 was recorded even higher than China. So the question is what does China or USA doing in their online shopping industry, that allows them to boost the retail sales for the entire country rapidly. The study will looking deeply into the online shopping model and industry in China and as well as USA, to find out what are the key factors or different approaches that are being used, to deliver a highly efficiency and profitable online shopping service. Research will be conducted using both qualitative and quantitative research, by in-depth interview the major local traditional retailers such as BigC in Bangkok, as well as the international retail brand that operates in Bangkok such as Dean & Deluca, getting the point of view from the retailers, seeing what they have in mind and what are the current status and situation in Thailand’s online shopping market. Meanwhile conduct secondary data research, looking for the best practices online shopping website and case worldwide, identifying the key success point or business model they are using, collecting data for comparing with the interview result in Thailand. Moreover, conducting online survey, distribute questionnaires to current online shoppers, looking for the insight, since Thailand has such high Internet penetration rate, but it seems doesn't help boosting domestic ecommerce growth. Lastly seeing if any other country’s online shopping or related online retail model or technology concept can be applied in Thailand, to full fill the gap in customer mind, stimulating online shopping activities and helping overall industry of ecommerce.