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สถาบันวิจัยเศรษฐกิจป๋วย อึ๊งภากรณ์
Puey Ungphakorn
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Call for Papers: PIER Research Workshop 2025
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Discussion Paperdp
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Year
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9 December 2019
20191575849600000
No. 118

Connecting Locals to Locals: Market Discovery through E-Commerce

Abstract

Despite rapid growth in e-commerce, there has been little systematic research examining the impact of online commerce adoption on the entrepreneurs in ASEAN. Using a unique survey data of around 7,000 merchants on Shopee in Thailand, this paper seeks to fill that gap through a mix of econometric and trade connectivity analyses. We found that e-commerce adoption is associated with improvement in household incomes for the sellers. The benefits come from two different channels. First, e-commerce empowers existing SMEs by significantly boosting their revenue, efficiency, and profit growth. The improvement in profitability seems to go beyond a one-off gain as going online seems to also result in stronger profit growth rates. Second, our trade connectivity analysis illustrates how e-commerce allows merchants, especially those in the poorer regions, discover new market opportunity outside their own regions. In addition, e-commerce allows people of various employment status including full-time employees, homemakers, students, etc. to earn additional income, while maintaining other responsibilities.

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JEL: L81F15F63R12
Tags: e-commercedigital economyconnectivitythailand
The views expressed in this workshop do not necessarily reflect the views of the Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research or the Bank of Thailand.
Santitarn Sathirathai
Santitarn Sathirathai
Thailand Development Research Institute
Voraprapa Nakavachara
Voraprapa Nakavachara
Chulalongkorn University

Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research

273 Samsen Rd, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200

Phone: 0-2283-6066

Email: pier@bot.or.th

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