Selling items online from Thailand

[MarkyM3]

Hi,

 

My ladyfriend in Bangkok is looking at the possibility of setting up a small online business to sell high quality, hand-made goods overseas. Handbags and other personal items, prices from around 2000 baht upwards. Whether or not there's a real market for that is open to debate but she's keen on the idea for now so who am I to question it LOL....

 

Anyways, just wondered what platforms were best for selling out of Thailand? Ebay is one I've used here in the UK over the years to buy and sell and, while the fees are a pain, they have genuine global reach and are able to handle everything including payment handling and distribution, case resolution etc. Is that true for accounts registered in Thailand as well?

 

Any other recommendations for platforms? I've used Amazon Marketplace once or twice but their fees are higher than Ebay and have seen some iffy reports about them. Seems they are more geared towards dropshippers. 

 

How about platforms closer to Asia for selling to Singapore, Hong Kong etc? 

 

Cheers

[fdsa]

Etsy is good.

But keep in mind that Thailand Post is prohibitely expensive (shipment with international tracking number starts from 800 THB) so for 2000 THB items it may be not feasible.

[digbeth]

Thai are selling courses on how to list things to sell online for both Ebay and Amazon, if you already has a working knowledge and an account, all the better

 

Etsy payments can be complicated for Thais due to paypal policy 

[Liverpool Lou]

13 hours ago, digbeth said:

Etsy payments can be complicated for Thais due to paypal policy 

What complicated problems do Thai nationals have with PayPal Thailand?

[CharlieH]

Stick to selling in Thailand via Lazada or Shopee.International will hammer you on fees, processibg payment and shipping.Lose lose in every direction. (IMHO)

[NativeBob]

Wait a sec: 

15 hours ago, MarkyM3 said:

high quality, hand-made goods

Interesting!

The best way to sell whatever you fancy is your own website. Do whatever, write, promote, post, accept any payment, chat, run your FAQ. Sell a single item, sell 999 items. Sky is the limit and its completely yours.

However the second mega-portal is FB. I can say that from experience.

Etzy, Ebay and the rest? too expensive to maintain and (funny part) is very easy to copy - this is how my pal biz went belly-up. Some kids simply copied his items with 5% discount.

Now payment processor. Sad PayPal left us.
^^^ Maybe should start from this point? How to accept payments, how to send items with confidence? And how to manage disputes/refunds?

[orang37]

If "lady friend" is a Thai national she can use PayPal to receive funds ... if she registers the business ... which means tax people may have access to her income.

 

Search on his forum for information/speculation on alternatives like Stripe.

[karl]

11 minutes ago, NativeBob said:

Wait a sec: 

Interesting!

The best way to sell whatever you fancy is your own website. Do whatever, write, promote, post, accept any payment, chat, run your FAQ. Sell a single item, sell 999 items. Sky is the limit and its completely yours.

However the second mega-portal is FB. I can say that from experience.

Etzy, Ebay and the rest? too expensive to maintain and (funny part) is very easy to copy - this is how my pal biz went belly-up. Some kids simply copied his items with 5% discount.

Now payment processor. Sad PayPal left us.
^^^ Maybe should start from this point? How to accept payments, how to send items with confidence? And how to manage disputes/refunds?

Good points; yet having your own site means you'd also have to find and attract clients. Not that easy to do.

[NativeBob]

1 hour ago, karl said:

Good points; yet having your own site means you'd also have to find and attract clients. Not that easy to do.

That's the second "Hell No!" toward online biz.

Kids and wannabees "open" e-store, register marketplace account, pay local famous "programmua" just to find out that their "high quality, hand-made goods" are sold at Chatuchak at 10% of what they pay. 

And for the reason beyond their understanding [suddenly] nobody is interesting.

There are some tricks how to prevent such <deleted>-ups.

But in online commerce the actual product is the last thing to worry. Bring real customers without selling leg and arm often is quite tricky. Been there done that )

[Chivas]

There is an item sold in 7/11 and Family Mart that is simply not available in the UK but is deeply loved lol

Purely by chance saw an Ebay listing and thought shight thats expensive but a bit of reserch revealed why.

300% mark up less shipping costs saw having sussed costs for everything you're looking at round 250 Baht profit per item (absolute worst case scenario)

Now do 10 a week and its worth that visit to the postal point

 

Edited to add.....or even better still take say 150 home in a suitcase as would still be under Customs import regs even if you got a tug.....then the profit would be around 480 baht an item

Edited December 24, 2022 by Chivas