Social Commerce In Thailand, Singapore, And The Philippines

Social Commerce in Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines. It’s all about community and trust when it comes to buying on social media. Shoppers use a variety of venues to investigate and seek buy recommendations from social networks. They leave evaluations on merchants’ official pages. Also, tag them for raves and complaints, and post pictures of their new purchases on accounts.

Thailand

According to a PayPal poll, 95 percent of online vendors in the Land of Smiles use social media to conduct business.

But, its numbers are more evenly distributed among platforms. Specifically:

• Only 79 percent of merchants use the social media platform.

• 54 percent use Facebook Messenger, and 46 percent use Instagram.

• 11% of sales associates with WhatsApp.

Merchants’ potential adoption of social selling is likewise at 64 percent. The main motivation for merchants to use social media is to reach a larger consumer base.

An article published in The Nation Thailand in 2018 fills in some gaps—and directs merchants to additional channels and opportunities.

YouTube and LINE were major social media platforms. At the same time, “51% of e-commerce in Thailand happens on social channels,” according to the report.

But, in this case, social commerce will also involve “conversation commerce.” According to John Wagner, managing director of Facebook Thailand, up to 8 billion messages were sent between people and businesses. Yes, via Facebook Messenger in April 2018.

Meanwhile, more than 17 billion photos sent through Facebook in May 2018. Also, 400 million people used its voice and video-chat features.

Singapore

Singapore was the lowest-scoring country in PayPal’s Asian e-commerce survey in many categories:

• Only 63 percent of retailers in Singapore engage in social selling.

• With a 70 percent market share, Facebook is the most popular social commerce platform for merchants in the city-state.

• Instagram comes in second with 46%, WhatsApp comes in third with 44%, and Facebook Messenger comes in third with 29%.

But, the numbers could continue to rise this year. According to the poll, 72 percent of Singaporean internet vendors who do not currently use social commerce will consider.

Finally, most feel they can potentially sell on social media because of the vast client reach (55 percent), ease of setting up a social commerce firm (43 percent) and having an existing network of friends and family (43 percent) (33 percent ).

The Philippines

Filipinos are huge fans of social media. The country is the “Social Media Capital of the World.” 99 percent of internet users in the country are signed up for at least one social media platform. Meanwhile, they spend about four hours online via a mobile device.

All of this is despite long-standing problems with internet access, speed, and cost.

Sellers are well aware of their clients’ enthusiasm for social media. So, they make themselves available on their chosen platforms.

According to PayPal’s Asian social commerce report:

• They sell their stuff on social media in 87 percent of cases.

• Also, they conduct business on Facebook (94 percent), Facebook Messenger (84 percent), Instagram (56 percent), and WhatsApp (21 percent).

• The Philippines has the greatest percentages for the first two social media platforms of all the countries surveyed.

It’s no surprise that 69 percent of Filipino merchants are interested in participating in social commerce.