Social Commerce’s Operation Activities Patterns in Thailand

Abstract

Nowadays, S-Commerce is a popular business operation channel and tends to welcome more new business operators. However, most of them have an obstacle in choosing the correct tools for operations which are available in many patterns. The main objective of this research is to find the most popular pattern of trading activities through S-Commerce in Thailand as to be guidelines for new business operators. A survey by interview was conducted on methods used to implement buying and selling activities according to consumer buying decision-making process from 120 S-Commerce business operators in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region by convenience sampling. The obtained methods were analyzed to find out the most common patterns. The findings from the study showed that most sellers selected Facebook to promote their businesses by providing details through Facebook pages and allowing customers to contact them for more information via inbox and telephone. Making purchases, informing payment channels, and confirming product delivery are done in inbox and customers give feedback on Facebook pages, followed by using Facebook in combination with LINE. Details of the product were given through Facebook pages and LINE Timeline. Customers contact for more information through LINE Chat and telephone. Making purchases and informing payment channels are done through LINE Chat. Products are sent directly to customers. Customers give feedback through Facebook pages. Some buyers and sellers were asked and it was found that most buyers would like to ask for additional details through other channels and sellers would like to expand their groups of customers. Therefore, it is necessary to increase channels in implementing activities that are making purchase order and inventory management difficult. In this regard, they selected to offer products through different channels but control the number or ordering channels to be limited to ensure purchase orders will be better managed, suitable for small business with small capital. Additional functions should be developed in bringing purchase orders from chat channel to store and manage in a systematic manner and be easy to use. It can be seen that S-Commerce has been conducted worldwide and its tendency seems to be moving higher. Some products of Thailand are desired by foreigners. In order to expand customer bases overseas, an automatic language translation functions on social media should be developed. Keywords: Social Commerce (S-Commerce); Business operation; Buying and selling activities; Activities pattern