Biggest Thai e-commerce retailer opens in Philippines with $4.5-M investment

MANILA, Philippines - With $4.5-million investment, Thailand’s leading e-commerce retailer, iTrueMart has launched iTrueMart.ph, its first e-commerce site in the Philippines.

With an average Filipino Internet user spending more than 6.2 hours a day online (mostly on their mobile phones), the business unit of Ascend group decided to venture in the Philippine market.

Because of the heavy Internet usage and high mobile penetration, a 2014 study by Ken Research shows that the Philippines' e-commerce market can expect annual growth rate of 101.4 percent from 2013 to 2018.

“Recognizing the growing number of Internet users in the Philippines, we are confident that online shopping will also grow,” said Punnamas Vichitkulwongsa, CEO of Ascend Group during an interview at the launch of iTrueMart.ph.

Seeing the potential augmentation and given the fact that the competition on the e-commerce sector in the country is still considered low despite the growing number of Internet users, Dean Krstevski, COO e-commerce of Ascend Group said Philippines provides plenty of opportunities for new players. Moreover, the brands targeting to sell their products online add further advantage for them as it will speed up their market entry.

“We are determined to become the dominant e-commerce player by 2017 through our strong team with extensive background. We want to be the top-of-mind e-commerce brand and the most trusted online shipping platform," he said.

Aside from providing an unrivaled online shopping experience to Filipinos, the e-commerce retailer also aims to make the Filipinos embrace online payment more than the usual cash-on-delivery system. While cash-on-delivery is still the preferred method of payment in the Philippines, mobile payment is gaining interest, said Vichitkulwongsa.

"In Thailand, we have online payment though mobile and PC. While cash-on-delivery is big in other countries, in Thailand, it is less than five percent because the consumers trust us and that is what we are planning to do here in the Philippines," explained Vichitkulwongsa.

When asked about their specific strategies to lure the Philippine market into the mobile payment, Vichitkulwongsa said they will do this by introducing a method that would make them willing and interested to do so such as using the prepaid reloadable card technique they did in Thailand.

"Consumers can buy this card at the convenience stores like 7/11, Family Mart or Mini Stop. They can use it to buy stuff on our website," Vichitkulwongsa explains.

With its successful hard-line products, iTruemart is also planning to expand by offering soft-line products such as health and beauty and moms and kids section.

As more and more Southeast Asian businesses are interested in expanding their business through e-commerce, the expansion will be extended to Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore with a goal to aim higher and expand into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) market. The firm plans to invest over $150 million in the AEC as part of its regional expansion.

iTrueMart.ph is currently available in Metro Manila and Luzon regions only.