SMEs and E Commerce   The Asia Foundation

Figure 1.26 

Buying online methods 

11

Emailing order

13

Ordering online

10

10.5

11

11.5

12

12.5

13

No. of respondents

4.3.5.2 Goods/products purchased  

Goods and services that were bought online could be classified into 3 major 

groups: IT related items, general goods, and hotel booking (Figure 1.27). 45.83% 

of the purchasing online informants had bought general goods including books 

for company use. 41.67% had bought IT and telecommunication related goods 

including computers, mobile phones, software. Only 1 company had booked a 

hotel's room online. 

Companies did not purchase raw materials online because original paper 

documents were preferable as legal evidence of purchasing. In some cases, 

telephone and facsimile were more convenient, time saving, informative, directly 

interacted and reliable. 

Percentage of total procurement over the Internet of most companies was not 

very high. 

     50% of these informants had bought 1 to 10%  

     16.67% had bought 21 30%  

     25% had bought more than 30%. 

Most respondents used money transfer (61.9%) and credit card charged over the 

Internet (38.1%) as means of payment. Number of respondents who used money 

transfer was more than those who used credit card charged over the Internet in 

Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Phuket. In all sectors, number of 

respondents who used money transfer was more than those who used credit card 

charged over the Internet. 

23