Retail shopping behavior in Thailand - statistics & facts

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Published by Hansa Manakitsomboon, Jul 18, 2022

As one of the most influential economies in Southeast Asia, Thailand’s thriving retail industry has become a point of interest among domestic and international consumers. Its capital city, Bangkok, is the country’s major hub for retail, attracting tourists with the variety of products and services offered. Apart from tourism, another of the main drivers of the retail sector is e-commerce. The internet has played a significant role in shaping consumer lifestyle and ultimately consumer demand. Despite the ample opportunities presented by this sector, the retail market in Thailand has been substantially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail sales in the country has shown fluctuations over the past months, achieving around 7.5 percent growht as of February 2022.

Retail channels in Thailand

The major retail outlets in Thailand are largely dominated by the top three billionaire families which have control over major retail chains such as 7-Eleven, Makro, Big C, FamilyMart, and Tops. These brands are chains of supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets, and department stores. In addition, conveniece stores were considered the most necessary retailer for Thai consumers as per the survey conducted as of October 2021. Apart from big named modern retailers, local grocers or as known as Cho-Huay stores are also popular among Thais as it is a way to support the locals. Some of the advantages of local grocers or Cho-Huay stores are cheap prices and easy visit. However, online retail channels have become an additional, even more popular of a medium for product distribution as internet penetration in Thailand has shown continuous growth. The most popular e-commerce sites in Thailand is Shopee, with over sixty million hits per month as of the third quarter of 2021. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly driven the popularity of online purchases, as consumers tried to refrain from shopping in physical stores to inhibit the spread of the virus.

Consumer behavior after COVID-19 pandemic

The pandemic has nonetheless negatively impacted Thailand’s overall retail sector. Even so, the food subsector has shown moderate growth while online retail is rapidly growing. Aside from the expansion in online retail, convenience stores has also shown growth since such stores are located almost everywhere, having more than 17 thousand outlets all over the country. Furthermore, as the pandemic has resulted in consumers wanting to purchase via online platforms more than before, several retailers has launched their own online platforms to support the demand. In 2020, department stores generated the highest value from their retail and wholesale e-commerce platforms, amounting to over 318.2 billion Thai baht, implying the interest for retail e-commerce among Thai consumers. Additionally, a survey conducted in June 2021 also revealed that some of the consumers would still prefer online shopping over physical stores even after the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifed.

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