The aggressive push is aimed at cashing in on booming online retail in Thailand, which is expected to account for 7.5% of total retail sales by 2020, up from 1.2%, in a market worth 400 billion baht last year.
“We are positioning ourselves as an online product and service sales site, apart from offering daily deals,” said Voravudh Varikarn, managing director of Ensogo Co.
Ensogo is shifting its focus to high-growth product sales because the daily deal service has reached the mature stage and it is difficult to target customers in the mass market.
He said Thailand’s e-commerce market had the potential to grow at 100% over the next five years, thanks to intense competition and the proliferation of mobile devices.
Ensogo has set the goal of becoming a leading lifestyle shopping marketplace in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, with a combined 500 million potential users.
Thailand is one of the top three largest markets for Ensogo Group.
Mr Voravudh said only 10 shopping websites were expected to dominate the market in Thailand over the next five years, down from the current 20, due to fierce competition.
He said Ensogo was building its brand awareness to raise consumer awareness of it as an e-commerce site, instead of just a daily deal site.
“We estimate up to 10 million Thais currently buy products and services online,” said Mr Voravudh, adding that Ensogo has 3.5 million users.
In order to double its customers to 7 million and achieve sales growth of 80% this year, he said Ensogo would launch aggressive marketing and advertising campaigns this month. Special offers include free delivery without a minimum purchase and a one-year warranty for products’ return.
To expand its customer base, Ensogo will also allow customers to pay for goods at the time of delivery.
Ensogo is increasing its variety of products with a greater price range, especially for fashion and mother and child products.
Target customers are females aged 20-45, mostly housewives. This demographic has strong purchasing power, spending an average 3,500 baht a month compared with an average of below 1,000 baht, said Mr Voravudh.
“By the year-end, we aim for revenue from sales of products and services to account for 70% of total revenue,” he said.
The top three best-selling products are health and beauty, house and garden, and IT gadgets. Restaurants, beauty and health, and travel are the best-selling services.