Luxury brands including cars in Thailand have turned to selling their products on Japanese chat app Line amid the coronavirus pandemic, tapping the country's growing appetite for social commerce, a top executive told Reuters.
Brands like Geely's Volvo Cars were among those that opened official accounts on the messaging app, which outranks Facebook's WhatsApp and Rakuten's Viber in Thailand, aiming to connect with users during a coronavirus lockdown, the report said.
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"The luxury category was forced to adapt because their stores were closed," Line Thailand chief commercial officer, Norasit Sitivechvichit, told Reuters.
Thailand earlier this year imposed a nationwide curfew and closed malls for nearly two months to contain infections.
"During the pandemic, sellers became very active," Norasit said, adding that others sold cosmetics and fast moving consumer goods.
Line, which charges sellers for sending messages and live streaming, said its monthly active users in Thailand grew from 44m to 47m this year, its second largest market after Japan.
Volvo successfully sold cars on the platform after launching in May and studying customer data, its Thailand head of marketing and digitalisation, Jean-David Harel, told Reuters.
"We have an understanding of which models they own today, which interest they have and when they plan to change their existing car," he said.
Social commerce is widely popular in Thailand, where merchants sell directly to customers through social media like Line and Facebook's Instagram, Reuters noted.
