Twenty Four Shopping makes Asean push

Twenty Four Shopping Co Ltd, an e-commerce company under the convenience store operator CP All Plc, is extending its catalogue sales services to other Asean countries to cash in on opportunities arising from the single market.

Ampa Yongpisanpop, vice-president, said the company had been distributing products made by Thai small and medium-sized enterprises to sell in Laos via a Thai-Lao trading company since early this month.

The company also started selling Thai health and beauty products via the WeChat application to test the response from customers in China.

It is in the process of selling SME products online via www.taiwang.com to further target Chinese customers, especially the 8 million tourists from China coming to Thailand annually.

Following Laos and China, Twenty Four Shopping Co plans to distribute SME products in Cambodia and Myanmar. Its own mobile application will be developed as a sales alternative for customers.

The company provides both online shopping and catalogue sales. Shoppers can order products from its 24 Catalog, formerly named 7 Catalog, and place orders at 7-Eleven convenience stores. They can pick up their purchases at the stores or opt for home delivery.

To support future expansion, the e-commerce company is investing 150 million baht to upgrade its software for an advance mail-ordering system, customer database, warehouse inventory, logistics and merchandising, Mr Ampa said.

The second phase of the software upgrade will start in the third quarter of this year.

The company expects to complete all three phases of the upgrade within the next 3-5 years, which will help strengthen its services to fit changing consumer demand.

Currently, 1500 SMEs use Twenty Four Shopping service, with the number expected to increase to 2,200 by the end of this year, Mr Ampa said.

Sales for Twenty Four Shopping grew to almost 4 billion baht in the first four months, with double-digit growth expected to continue this year, he added.