State Agency Assists Vendors Tapping Online Sales

BANGKOK (NNT) - Nattapol Nimmanphatcharin, Director-General of the Digital Development for Economy and Society Act (DEPA), has announced the success of the "Transform Fresh Markets to New Ways" program during an exhibition held at the True Digital Park. "Transform Market Showcase 2022" was the title of the exhibition.

Nattapol said the project began in September 2021 with the goal of encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and street vendors to trade their products and accept digital payments on digital platforms. As of March 2022, the program had partnered 30,050 vendors from 300 fresh markets with 28 Thai digital startups and service providers to enable them to sell their products online.

According to Nattpol, the sale of over 200,000 products available via digital platforms has generated over 300 billion baht in revenue thus far.

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According to the DEPA Director-General, Bangkok, Samut Prakan, and Samut Sakhon were the top three provinces where vendors turned to online sales in addition to their traditional trade. He noted that some of the program’s participants operate businesses from fresh markets and street-side stalls.

Nattapol added that since August 2021, DEPA has trained approximately 1.2 million interested individuals to conduct online trading via platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Digital Skill, enabling them to access and apply digital technologies to their trade.