This is another issue that Thai entrepreneurs suffer from when selling products on foreign online shopping platforms but face heavy commission fees, leaving some with almost no profit. Although sales may appear high, reaching hundreds of thousands or millions, few realize that behind the scenes profits are minimal.
Recently, DJ Ton Horm Sakuntala opened up to Thairath Entertainment as a live seller, revealing the harsh reality behind million-baht sales figures envied by many, but burdened by steep costs and platform fees from foreign sites that are almost suffocating.
From your perspective as a live seller facing heavy deductions, what would you like to say about this?
"The deductions really are very high. Sometimes customers say, ‘Hey, this price is high; can you reduce it or offer a promotion?’ I want to do that a lot because I want everyone to try our products. We do have customers who buy from us, but new customers who buy cheaper products, I hope they might pay a little more to use my products.
They ask if I can do promotions, but I tell them the cost is already high and I can't offer promotions. The cost isn’t as important as the platform fees. Imagine how expensive these fees are for someone who has never sold before. The platform fee alone is quite large—if you’re not a creator, it’s at least 20%, which is a lot.
Then if we join a campaign, there’s an additional 10% fee. There are many fees. By the time the money reaches us... If people don’t understand, think about Jenny’s live sales during that trend. Everyone envied her sales. ‘Oh, her sales reached 5 million.’ But I have to say my profit was only 990,000 baht.
If sales don’t reach 5 million, I can’t cover all costs. There are other expenses too, like packing. When orders are large, I have to hire packers, which costs hundreds of thousands. The platform fees are already huge, and we have to run promotions. Please understand the sellers’ difficulties.
Now, for those who want quality products, I don’t want to encourage buying cheap without caring about quality because it opens doors to counterfeit goods. When using foreign platforms, what happens is the AI seems to target Thai people and celebrities, but counterfeit goods sell well, affecting genuine mall shops.
This worries me a lot. It would be great if this could be fixed. Also, there are scammers who buy products then return trash to get refunds instantly from the platform’s automatic system, so they get both the product and money back, while sellers end up with garbage. I hope there will be apps or something to protect sellers better; otherwise, good sellers will get discouraged."
If there were Thai-owned platforms with lower fees, do you think that would be okay?
"That would be great. I truly believe sellers would come. It’s a problem we can’t compete against foreign platforms because they’re so big. Also, I feel we don’t really need to depend on foreigners since they don’t buy our products. It’s a platform where only Thai people buy from their own country. So, I hope anyone creating a platform in Thailand will address this problem."
Some people think DJ Ton Horm must be rich from online sales?
"Honestly, I pay very high platform fees."
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