77% of Thai respondents access internet everyday with 63% already shopping online
The latest survey on online shopping habits by MasterCard Worldwide revealed that Thai online shoppers shopped more frequently with 77% of Thai respondents accessing the internet daily. The top reasons for using the internet are for receiving/sending emails (94%), followed by reading news online (87%), online shopping (63%) browsing materials for work or study (63%), browsing for leisure (61%), for online chat with friends (58%).
It has been a big year for Thailand e-commerce, with increased availability of high speed internet connections. The increase in online shopping was driven by key factors including convenient payment methods (88%), good exchange or return policy (87%), site offers secure payment facility (86%), price/value of the items (86%), low or no extra charges for usage of payments methods or deliver service and good customer service (83%). The average spend in Thailand over the three months has also gone up from 400USD (13,200 baht) to 550USD (or approximately 18,150 baht) with males between the age of 35 and 44 years old, spending above average at about 620USD (20,460 baht).
This is the second survey on online shopping habits conducted by MasterCard in fourth quarter of 2009. It covered 8,000 respondents across 14 markets: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, UAE and South Africa with Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan and the Philippines being new markets included in 2009. The inaugural survey was conducted in December 2007. The survey and the accompanying Insights Report do not represent MasterCard financial performance.
Among the total respondents, 500 were Thais between the ages of 18 and 64 years with personal bank accounts and who accessed the internet at least once a week.
Highlights of Thai respondents include the following;
- 77% of the Thai respondents accessed the internet daily, 17% access 4-6 days a week, 4% access 2-3 days a week and 2% access once a week.
- Thais mostly accessed the internet from home (88%) and from office (50%). However, a smaller number of them also accessed the internet through their mobile phones (9%), café or restaurant with personal laptop (9%) and from café or restaurant with public pc (8%).
- Top 5 most visited websites for Thai respondents were hotmail (60%), Google.com (57%), Google.co.th (45%) facebook (28%), and msn (22%).
- 75% of the Thai respondents mainly access internet through ADSL connection, 30% through Wi-Fi, 16% through Broadband, 13% through Dial up, 12% through GPRS, 5% through other mobile access and 4% through 3G.
- Top 5 most visited merchant websites included music download (53%), clothing and accessories (50%), cinemas (49%), supermarket/superstores (43%) and books/CDs/DVDs (41%)
- Top five products or services most frequently bought online for Thais included ladies clothing and accessories (47%), CDs/DVDs/VCDs (30%), cosmetics (30%), personal care and beauty (29%), and airline tickets (24%).
- In the three months prior to the survey, Thai respondents who did not make any online purchase because 61% is not sure whether online shopping is safe or secure, 58% prefer to shop in-store to look at the physical product, 21% did not see anything interested from shops online, 21% the additional administrative and deliver charges were bad and 20% did not own a credit card.
- Low price/substantial discount on prices compared to offline channels (75%) was the top reason that triggered impulsive shopping, followed by the uniqueness of products only available online (68%) and advertisements and promotions (62%).
“Online shopping has become more and more popular in Thailand as we see more online shoppers and an increase in the average spending. It is also encouraging to see people having positive attitudes towards online shopping with 85% saying that shopping online is convenient, 81% saying it’s easy and 77% saying it’s fun." said Eileen Wee, vice president and country manager – Thailand, MasterCard Worldwide.
About MasterCard Worldwide
MasterCard Worldwide advances global commerce by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, businesses, cardholders and merchants worldwide. As a franchisor, processor and advisor, MasterCard develops and markets payment solutions, processes over 22 billion transactions each year, and provides industry-leading analysis and consulting services to financial-institution customers and merchants. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network and through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro® and Cirrus®, MasterCard serves consumers and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information go to www.mastercard.com. Follow us on Twitter:@mastercardnews.
Contacts:
Eileen Wee, MasterCard Worldwide, eileen_wee@mastercard.com 0 2677 7450
Elizabeth Wongwasin, 124 Communications, lisa@124comm.com 0 2662 2266 ext 216 |
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