MyWaWa, a Thai e-Commerce startup, debuted mywawa.me, the largest B2B e-Marketplace platform for business in Thailand. The e-Marketplace elevates SMEs and large businesses to digitally transform into the world of e-Commerce. The platform brings together manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers across industries in one place and provides the latest technologies to support online trading, billing, payment, and logistics activities. Developed to respond to pain points in the local B2B sector, as existing foreign platforms are vulnerable to digital safety and may cause leakage of the country's online trading data, the Thai B2B e-Marketplace is now open for sellers and buyers to sign up for free.
Mr. Korn Thiennukul, CEO & Co-founder MyWaWa and WaWa Service and Marketing Group Co., Ltd., said that B2B e-Commerce in Thailand has been growing and becoming an important channel in the digital marketing era. Today, traditional businesses are adapting to the world of e-Commerce, driven by rapid change in trade and the global economic landscape. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic has been accelerating businesses to expand their sales via online channels.
"Traditionally, operators in the B2B model assign sales reps to meet and negotiate business with buyers or participate in domestic and overseas tradeshows. As these activities were impossible during the pandemic, it has significantly impacted local businesses, including 400,000-500,000 SMEs and large businesses in the manufacturing sector. Operators who can quickly adapt and transform can drive their business forward. However, many operators are still struggling due to a lack of digital literacy and lack of resources.
Meanwhile, most trading platforms available in the markets are designed to support B2C or C2C models as B2B requires a backend system that supports complicated purchasing processes, high-value payment per transaction, and logistics solutions that can serve specific requirements in different industries. Furthermore, most of the existing B2B trading platforms are foreign platforms that are vulnerable to digital safety and may cause leakage of the country's online trading data.
With these economic impacts and business pain points, MyWaWa, a Thai e-Commerce startup, has developed www.mywawa.me, the largest B2B e-Marketplace platform for business in Thailand. The online trading hub caters to the needs of wholesalers and manufacturers. It assembles the manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers from across industries and is equipped with operating features for sales, billing, payment, and logistics in one place."
Registration is free of charge, Data Protected with Digital Safety Technologies
With an aim to serve buyers and sellers of all generations, www.mywawa.me was developed to be user-friendly. The registration is free for buyers and sellers across industries while users can access all features without any subscriptions or monthly fees.
For sellers, it is a must to be a juristic person registered in Thailand. The platform allows sellers to access and self-manage their stores, starting from setting up a storefront, entering product information, pricing products, designing promotions, issuing an invoice, billing, and selecting ways for product delivery. MyWaWa service staff will be standing by to assist sellers throughout the process. The platform helps expand business opportunities, allowing sellers to quickly reach out to buyers and reduce traditional marketing costs and time while sellers do not need to set up a new website. Furthermore, MyWaWa has no hidden costs. There is a 3-5% trading fee via the platform, while the rate depends on the type of industry. The fee will be charged when the transaction is completed, and the buyer has received the product.
For buyers, the platform allows buyers, a juristic person or a natural person, to register free of charge. Once the registration process is completed, buyers can start to search for desired products through a search engine feature on the platform. MyWaWa makes it easy for buyers to find a wide variety of products, meet new suppliers, require more information, negotiate with sellers through a chat system, and directly require a price quotation from sellers.
In addition, MyWaWa is equipped with digital safety technologies to ensure data protection throughout the process. These technologies include KYC (Know Your Customer) designed for verifying sellers and buyers, Smart Contract designed for billing and issuing Purchase Order (PO) with data storage that allows users to retrieve related documents at any time. Furthermore, the platform comes with Track & Trace for tracking delivery status, and TSO (Trade Secure Order) with Escrow Account for handling the payment for sellers once buyers confirm the receipt of the purchased product according to the order. These technologies ensure a safe trading environment where sellers receive their online payments and buyers receive their purchased products.
Fast-growing e-Marketplace with over 1.5 billion baht in sales via the platform
Shortly after a soft launch, www.mywawa.me has attracted more than 100 manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers who offer over 3,000 products (SKUs) from various industries, including food and beverage; automotive parts; printing; packaging and office equipment; home and building materials; chemical, rubber and plastics; health and beauty; book and educational equipment; and many more.
Leading companies that are now operating on the platform include Sahaviriya Steel Industries PLC or SSI, a Southeast Asia's leading producer of hot rolled steel sheet in coils, which has chosen www.mywawa.me to launch its first e-Commerce channel; Suksapan Panit - under the Office of the Welfare Promotion for Teachers and Educational Personnel (OTEP); FoilMaster (Thailand) Ltd., that offers a wide range of stamping foils and related products for all industries; Bee Box Printing Co., Ltd., a leading food-grade packaging manufacturer; Mun Kong Energy Co., Ltd., a fuel distributor; OfficeMate (Thai) Co., Ltd., a business supplies provider; and Kru Yu Cottage Co., Ltd., a manufacturer and distributor of Thai snack products in Thailand and overseas.
Currently, more than 2,000 resisted sellers are operating on the platform with a total transaction value of more than 1.5 billion baht.
Partnership for growth
Today, the platform is partnering with organizations in the public and private sectors to facilitate and expand services to support future growth. In financial technology (FINTECH), the platform is collaborating with digital banking operators and leading financial service providers such as the Government Savings Bank (GSB), which has become a partner for the online payment security system. In logistics, the company partners with leading B2B logistics companies namely WeMove Platform, ViaLink, and Flash Group.
Besides, Advanced Info Service PCL or AIS is now offering special discounts on fees to AIS BIZ UP customers on MyWaWa. The B2B platform is also planning to expand partnerships with other key players such as Lazada, of which MyWaWa can be a source of supplies for sellers on Lazada.
Stepping Forward to Become Trade and Investment Gateway to Southeast Asia
Mr. Korn said, "According to research conducted by Gartner, by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in the digital channel while 44% of millennials prefer no sales rep interaction in a B2B purchase setting. These findings support MyWaWa's approach to encouraging operators in the manufacturing sector to digitally transform and enter the e-Commerce arena.
Acknowledging the needs of the country to digitalize the B2B infrastructure, MyWaWa, therefore, aim to be part of developing the powerful digital infrastructure in order to reach out to manufacturers, provide a product exhibition platform for SMEs and large businesses, and increase competitive edge through fair competition via MyWaWa's tool.
With access to various sources, SMEs, which may never grow digital footprints or use any online tools in the past, can now offer more product variety to customers, especially products of Thailand with quality that is second to none.
Beyond Thailand, countries in Southeast Asia are also recognized as important global manufacturing bases, with rising numbers of manufacturers relocated from China to this growing region. With the regional potential and Thailand's strategic location, we aim at promoting MyWaWa to be Trade and Investment Gateway to Southeast Asia,"
Source: a publicist
