Impact of B2C E-Commerce on Small Retailers in Thailand: An Investigation Into Profitability, Operating Efficiency, and Employment Generation

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the economic and social impacts of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce in the small retail sector of certain commodities in Thailand. A primary sample survey was conducted for the collection of data from the north, northeast, central and southern regions of the country during the months of January to March 2018. The data were collected from small retail outlets of books and magazines, cosmetics, mobile, and laptop who have adopted online sales with physical shop, and doing exclusively offline sales. The total sample size of the study was 1462 units. The results revealed that adoption of online sales in retailing by small retailers could raise their profitability in the short-term, medium-term, and long-term periods. However, the operating efficiency of the firms measured in terms of operating expenses and their social impact calculated by new employment generation and increased employee compensation were not laudable in Thailand on their transformation from brick-and-mortar to click-and-mortar stores. Another important observation of the study is that the non-adoption of online sales is highly prevalent in the small enterprise segment of retailing in Thailand.