KBank launches online vendor advice centre

Effort to break into e-commerce boom

Kasikornbank (KBank), the country’s largest small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) loan provider, has unveiled a new centre to offer business and marketing advice to online vendors to tap into the burgeoning e-commerce market.

Yesterday the bank debuted K Online shop Space (KOS), providing advice for online marketing and promoting knowledge and skills for e-store management. If the first KOS receives a positive response from target customers, KBank plans to open more branches, said president Patchara Samalapa.

KBank’s total customers number 15 million, of which 1.67 million are users of K Plus Shop, a mobile banking app for merchants, he said. Some 300,000 clients are online sellers, and most of them are housewives, university students and salarymen.

The Electronic Transactions Development Agency reported that e-commerce transactions in Thailand last year totalled 2.81 trillion baht, of which 813 billion were business-to-customer (B2C) interactions. This year, B2C transactions are expected to increase by 17% to 949 billion baht.

Transactions via social media represent the largest ratio at 40% of total B2C transactions, followed by 35% from e-marketplaces and 25% from modern trade online platforms under Brand.com.

Based on payment methods, fund transfers via mobile banking account for 65% of total volume and the remainder goes to credit card payments. Fund transfer through the bank’s mobile banking app, K Plus, dominates at 60% of total digital banking money transfers.

“Apart from the new physical touch-point model, the bank has opened other branch models to match the changing lifestyle of consumers and the need for new business models,” Mr Patchara said.

The bank has opened a lifestyle branch model, K Park, at a PTT petrol station in collaboration with the business partner and plans to open more K Park branches this year, with an aim at building customer relationships and strengthening the brand, rather than rely on banking transactions.

KBank, the country’s fourth-largest lender by assets, has about 1,000 brick-and-mortar branches nationwide. Traditional branch numbers are expected to decline to 800 by the end of next year, with the closure of 90 branches this year and in 2019.

The bank also has plans to open new touch points under several models, both offline and online.

KBANK shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 207 baht, down two baht, in trade worth 1.23 billion baht.