S-Commerce Transactions and Business Models in Southeast Asia: A Case Study in Thailand
Abstract
Social networking platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Line have recently gained enormous popularity for commercial purposes among social media users, and is commonly known as C2C social commerce (SC). These new online businesses are continuing to flourish in Southeast Asia especially in Thailand where the C2C-SC market size is significant. To get a clear picture of C2C-SC in Southeast Asia, this study investigated the patterns of purchasing processes and business models being used in Thailand. The data was gathered from direct observations and an online survey. The findings revealed that the typical purchasing process of this channel consists of five basic steps: advertising, searching, negotiation and ordering, payment, and delivery. The business models can be categorized into five models: S-retailing, S-specific market, S-preorder, S-auction and S-reverse auction. The results may contribute to promote SC activities and value creation for the local business community in this region. Social networking users who wish to build their businesses on SC can reference our findings to provide transaction process effectiveness and promote more satisfactory services to their customers.
Keywords: C2C Social commerce, business models, s-commerce transactions
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