Thailand Post has begun charging people sending a parcel weighing up to one kilogramme 19 baht each. This new initiative began on Tuesday, 24 March 2020, as part of a measure to accommodate online shopping in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The move is to make it more convenient for people buying necessities, particularly consumer goods, via online shops, preventing them from shopping out of the home during the outbreak, the President of the Thailand Post stated.
The campaign will run until April 30 at post offices across the country. It is also meant to help move the economy forward.
Parcels under the campaign will be delivered to destinations within 2-5 days, can be tracked and are entitled to a maximum payment of 1,000 baht per item in indemnity.
For people wanting to use cash on delivery (COD) service, an extra of 10 baht per item will be charged for a product worth up to 30,000 baht. Thailand Post will disinfect all the touching points in post offices’ operations every 30 minutes.
The disinfectant will be sprayed on parcels coming from abroad while employees will have health checks every time before they go out for work.
The Minister of Digital Economy and Society (DES) stated that one of the key measures for combating the outbreak is to prevent people from travelling to risky areas or crowded places.
Accordingly, the DES ministry, which oversees Thailand Post, has the policy to support people shopping online to reduce the chances of contracting the disease when going shopping out of the home.
Thailand Post has been instructed by the DES Ministry to facilitate delivery with affordable prices, he said.
The company has been directed to heighten safety measures along with the postal procedures, particularly those connected with customers, to boost public confidence.
The demographics of online shopping in Thailand
The Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) recently conducted a survey, between 5 and 15 March 2020, to study what the behaviour and reasoning channels of online food ordering of Thais look like amid the Covid-19 epidemic.
The findings were released in a report titled “Using Online Food Delivery for Thai people”. The survey was developed to aggregate and analyse data to enable the design and implementation of e-commerce planning and policies for better online transactions.
The online survey, which included 376 people found that:
- Gen Y group (aged 19-38 years) used online shopping services
- Gen X group (aged 39-54 years) used online shopping services second-most
- Baby Boomer (55-73 years) used online shopping services second least
- Gen Z group (under 19 years old) used online shopping services the least
The ETDA also found that concern over the situation around the Covid-19 epidemic was an important factor affecting the decision-making behaviour in using online food ordering services.
The group that chose to order food online because of concerns about the spread of Covid- 19 was Gen Y (40.2%), followed by Gen Z (30.0%), Baby Boomers (28.6%) and, finally, Gen X (26.9%), with an overall average of 33.96% of the surveyed population using online food services as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The Thai government is actively working to encourage citizens to self-quarantine, participate in social distancing and maintain their hygiene (all made easier via online services).