Shopee, as a partner in empowering Thai MSMEs, continues its commitment to developing an ecosystem that supports the growth of entrepreneurs. This includes innovative back-end systems, infrastructure, and sales-boosting tools to enhance access to customers nationwide, expand sales opportunities, and directly contribute to the long-term business growth of sellers. Reflecting the tangible results of a stable platform ecosystem, coupled with close collaboration with government agencies such as the Department of Business Development (DBD), Ministry of Commerce, under the Digital Village by DBD project – an online community for borderless trade – which has continued for over 8 years, Shopee takes you on a deep dive into the success of 5 Thai community enterprises. This is showcased through the stories, perspectives, and ideas of small business owners in starting their businesses, reinforcing the role of the Shopee platform in helping them identify opportunities, create growth, and give back to their communities for long-term strength and resilience.

Chef Jom, representing the Ban Ton Pring community enterprise in Trang province, sells Southern Thai curry paste under the brand Chef Jom Hom Krua, which recently started selling on Shopee. However, he felt confident and saw potential for sales from customers. “I’ve tried selling through other online channels, but Shopee eliminates my worries about volatile algorithms because customers have clear purchasing purposes, allowing the shop to focus on selling and improving product quality. Moreover, the back-end system acts like a professional employee, handling four departments (HR, marketing, purchasing, and finance), saving me the effort and allowing my solo business model to thrive without needing significant capital.” This restored Chef Jom’s time and confidence, enabling him to pursue his ultimate goal: creating employment opportunities for elderly people who can no longer perform strenuous work like rubber tapping.

“Having a stable market platform and a reliable system allows community enterprises to implement strategies to find markets before building factories, reducing the risk of investment that might not find customers. This includes policies supporting entrepreneurs, such as the fee reduction program for small sellers, which Chef Jom sees as very effective. The fee reduction policy for small sellers helps a lot of ‘small businesses’ because, since small shops can’t drastically reduce their raw material costs like large companies, the platform’s willingness to reduce fees is like directly helping to lower costs.” This allows small businesses to have profits left over to reinvest and continue competing in the market.” The Shopee platform therefore acts as a risk shield and helps small businesses compete in the market and turn supplementary income into primary income in the future.

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