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Arip, the organiser of Commart IT events, has doubled its marketing budget for the Commart TechXPro event in order to stimulate demand for IT products in the final quarter. Product retailers have also allocated a larger marketing budget for offline events and are pinning their hopes on the emergence of personal computer models empowered by artificial intelligence (AI). "We have increased our marketing budget from the regular 700,000-800,000 baht to 2 million baht this time," said Pornchai Jantarasupasang, Arip's deputy general manager.
The Commart TechXPro event got underway yesterday and continues through Dec 1 at Bitec. The event is offering more privileges and vouchers to visitors to encourage them to spend more, he added. Mr Pornchai said consumers are spending much more cautiously than usual due to the challenging economic situation.
Meanwhile, prices of second generation AI-enabled PCs are more affordable, starting from 22,000 baht, when compared with the 35,00-baht starting price of first generation AI-enabled PCs Mr Pornchai said retailers have also allocated a bigger marketing budget to provide prospective buyers with discounts as they are focusing on offline events to boost sales, rather than rely heavily on e-marketplaces which have continued to hike the commission fee they charge the merchants. Previously, the e-marketplaces provided an extra discount on computers and the buyers then picked up the goods they ordered at a Commart event. Mr Pornchai said the company is also collaborating with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to showcase 'Tech Tiew Thai by TAT'.
This initiative promotes Thai creative design of keycaps, complementing Thailand's soft power policy. A keycap is a key cover placed on a keyboard for decorative effect. They can be made from plastic, metal, or other materials.
The latest Commart event is presenting smart home solutions, a new product category presented by AiTAN Technology, a member of the Thai IoT (Internet of Things) Association. "We expect 100,000-150,000 visitors and sales transactions of 3.4 billion baht at this event, up from 3 billion baht at the previous event," said Mr Pornchai.
Somyot Chaowalit, chief executive of IT product retailer JIB, said the computers on sale at this Commart event would be discounted by at least 15% on average. Noting that selling computers is a low margin business, Mr Somyot pointed out that having to provide discounts and the commission fee hikes initiated by e-marketplaces made it more difficult for IT retailers to make a profit. The prices of tailor-made desktop computers offered by JIB at the event would range from 8,500 to 250,000 baht, while the average price of notebooks would be around 27,000 baht.
Suthat Krongchon, president of the Thai IoT Association, said the association anticipates that the smart home solutions category could provide a good deal of potential for Thai firms. IoT and smart home devices will provide greater safety and convenience to users in an aged society, he noted. "IoT is a high-growth segment, thanks to high-speed internet, 5G and hyperscale data centres that support AI processing, which will stimulate the use of IoT to obtain real-time insightful data," said Mr Suthat.
He said IoT would change retail in the future when users will order grocery products from various connected smart devices and allow brands to sell directly to consumers..
