Ecommerce in Thailand has been popular for over a decade, and it continues to grow amidst intense competition. However, success in the online market is no longer determined solely by lower prices or promotional giveaways. Even some major companies have failed to sustain market presence.

Channel-based pricing is a marketing strategy that has recently become more important. This method involves setting prices based on the sales channel, matching customer behavior, and adjusting according to the trends and practices of each platform. This approach is particularly effective with Thai customers who are price-sensitive, value promotions, and often compare prices across different channels before making purchases.

In this article, we explore channel-based pricing in Thai ecommerce, including reasons why pricing strategies are important for business success. We also provide examples of how channel-based pricing applies to the Thai ecommerce context and examine its challenges. Lastly, we provide guidelines for managing the components of a pricing strategy to gain a competitive advantage.

Key takeaways

• Channel-based pricing refers to setting appropriate prices for products across different sales channels, taking into account platform costs, fee structures, customer behavior, and different promotion styles.
  
• Popular sales channels in the Thai ecommerce system include brand platforms, marketplaces, social commerce, delivery apps, and various partners.
  
• Channel-based pricing is important because platforms vary, including their fee structures, promotions, customer behavior, trends, and marketing costs.
  
• The challenges of channel-based pricing include price comparisons, conflicts with partners, complex management, revenue tracking, and brand consistency.
  
• Businesses can apply different pricing strategies for each channel, such as seasonal pricing, member pricing, bundling, free gifts, channel-specific prices, and psychological pricing (e.g., ending prices with nine).
  

What is channel-based pricing?

Channel-based pricing refers to setting appropriate prices for each sales channel, including a brand’s website, social commerce, marketplaces, resellers, and affiliates. Each platform has different costs, fee structures, customer behaviors, and promo styles.

If a business sets the same price across all channels without considering the actual costs, it could lead to reduced profit margins, underpriced products, or price conflicts between sales channels.

What are the main channels in the Thai ecommerce system?

Examples of popular sales channels in the Thai ecommerce system include the following:

• Brand platforms
  On these channels, brands sell products directly to customers without intermediaries. These include websites, brand apps, emails, and text messages. They help control the customer experience, collect data, and incorporate customer relationship management (CRM).
  
• Marketplaces
  Marketplaces are online sales channels that include store management, payment systems, promotions, and logistics support. They are ideal for reaching a large number of customers and include sites such as Kaidee, Lazada, and Shopee.
  
• Social commerce
  Social commerce—also known as “selling via social media”—uses content, live commerce, chats, and comments to close sales. It’s suitable for products that need to create interest, brand awareness, and customer interaction and includes sales on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LINE Official Account (OA).
  
• Delivery apps
  Selling via delivery apps that focus on speed—referred to as “quick commerce”—is suitable for food, drinks, daily necessities, and items that need fast delivery. This method includes selling on apps such as Grab, LINE MAN, and Robinhood.
  
• Partners
  Selling via resellers, affiliates, influencers, content creators, or retailers can help distribute products and reach different customer groups. The seller or product promoter earns a commission or payment based on sales.
  

Why is channel-based pricing popular?

In the Thai ecommerce market, channel-based pricing is a popular strategy because of the main factors that differ according to each platform.

Fee structures

Each platform has different fees, such as commissions, payment fees, service fees, platform fees, shipping, additional service fees, and taxes. Setting the same price across all channels could result in lower-than-expected profits on certain platforms. Therefore, businesses can calculate the total cost associated with each channel before setting prices. This is particularly important for products with low profit margins, as they are more significantly affected by these costs.

Promotions

Each platform typically features distinct campaigns, ecommerce discounts, special coupons, and promotional offers. Consequently, pricing strategies must account for these discounts and promotional costs in advance to ensure profitability when participating in events—such as flash sales with short-term discounts, Thailand’s “double-digit day” sales events (e.g., on 09/09, 10/10, and 11/11), free shipping offers, and social commerce-specific promotions (e.g., exclusive discounts during live streams).

Customer behavior

Customer purchasing behavior varies across platforms. Some channels focus on price comparisons, while others prioritize reviews or after-sales service. Setting prices that align with these behaviors can increase the likelihood of purchases.

For instance, customers on marketplaces often compare prices, reviews, shipping costs, and promotions before buying. In contrast, TikTok users often become interested in a product after seeing content, rather than through an intentional search. Meanwhile, customers who value brand credibility and the overall brand experience tend to purchase directly from the brand’s website.

Marketing costs

Some platforms require significant marketing budgets to ensure product visibility. Therefore, in addition to product costs and platform fees, businesses must factor these expenses into their pricing strategies to ensure profitability.

Examples of marketing costs include advertisements, content creation, commissions for creators or affiliates, cost-per-click (CPC) bids to secure placement in search results, and social media advertising campaigns designed to drive traffic to websites.

Trends

Businesses can adjust prices across various channels to align with market trends, customer demand, economic conditions, and product popularity. For example, businesses can offer special holiday pricing, run double-digit day campaigns, or raise prices for trending items to reflect increased demand. They can also take competitor pricing into account.

Furthermore, trends on sales channels are important. The rise of live stream shopping on TikTok is particularly significant, given that 60% of its more than 57.5 million Thai users consider TikTok reviews to be a factor in their purchasing decisions.

Visibility algorithms

Each platform’s algorithm directly influences product visibility based on factors such as price, sales volume, reviews, click-through rates, and value. Setting prices too high can reduce click-through or sales volumes, which can negatively affect long-term product visibility.

Therefore, pricing strategies must balance profitability, competitiveness, and visibility. Pricing slightly higher than competitors on a marketplace can result in lower search rankings, leading to reduced visibility, fewer clicks, and lower sales.

General guidelines for channel-based pricing

Businesses must understand the common pricing practices for each sales channel.

Channel-based pricing strategies for Thai ecommerce

Businesses can adopt the following pricing strategies and customize them for the specific context of each sales channel.

Time-based or seasonal pricing

Businesses can raise prices to align with festivals, promotional campaigns, or periods of high customer spending—such as double-digit day sales, month-end and year-end periods, and New Years celebrations. Businesses might set slightly higher regular prices to accommodate the use of discount coupons or other promotions during these special campaigns while maintaining gross profit margins.

However, pricing must remain transparent and reasonable to avoid creating negative customer sentiment caused by raising prices immediately before a promotion.

Pricing for trending products

Trending items, viral products, seasonal goods, and festival-related merchandise often have more flexible pricing than regular products. Consequently, businesses can employ demand-based pricing strategies, which involve raising prices when market demand surges and lowering them as popularity wanes.

Nevertheless, pricing decisions should consider appropriateness and market competition. Continuously monitoring sales figures, customer behavior, and trends on ecommerce platforms enables businesses to adjust prices effectively and maximize profits while products are in high demand.

Special pricing for members

Businesses can offer special pricing for members—such as discounts of 5%–15% for those who sign up, earn points through purchases, or make repeat purchases. Beyond incentivizing customers to sign up for memberships and make repeat purchases, special pricing helps draw customers away from third-party marketplaces and toward the brand’s channels, such as its website or mobile app. This enables businesses to collect customer data directly, reduce reliance on external sales channels, and communicate marketing messages more effectively.

Channel-specific pricing

Setting special prices or creating product bundles for specific sales channels can differentiate and enhance the value of offers across various platforms. Examples include selling exclusive product sets on the brand’s website that are unavailable elsewhere or offering affordable trial packages on marketplaces to allow customers to experience the product at a lower cost. This strategy minimizes direct price comparisons between channels and allows brands to align pricing with the specific behaviors of customers on each platform.

Premium pricing

Premium pricing sets a product’s price higher than that of competitors to reflect superior quality, exclusivity, and brand image. This approach is ideal for products that stand out due to their quality, materials, design, or emotional value—distinguishing them from ordinary products.

To justify premium pricing, businesses can build credibility by providing detailed product information, using high-quality images, showcasing trustworthy reviews, and offering excellent after-sales service.

Pricing new products

When pricing a new product, businesses must consider costs, customer behavior, and the level of market competition to determine a price that attracts customers and ensures appropriate profitability. For new products that are not yet widely known, businesses can initially employ a penetration pricing strategy—setting prices lower than competitors—to encourage trial purchases and build a customer base. Once the product gains acceptance, the price can be adjusted to align with market demand.

Conversely, if the product is innovative or possesses features that clearly distinguish it from existing market offerings, businesses can use a price-skimming strategy. This involves setting a high price at launch to establish a premium image and maximize returns from customers willing to pay more.

Clearance pricing

Businesses can use clearance pricing to reduce inventory levels of slow-moving, obsolete, or near-expired goods. Price reductions stimulate short-term purchasing decisions through tactics such as flash sales, “buy one, get one free” offers, or 50% discounts. Furthermore, clearly communicating that stock is limited or that the sale is a final offer creates a sense of urgency, which can boost conversion rates.

Businesses must determine discount levels carefully, taking into account product costs, minimum acceptable profit margins, and the potential impact on brand image.

Psychological pricing

Psychological pricing techniques focus on influencing customer emotions and minds, rather than relying solely on cost-based calculations. These strategies aim to make products appear more affordable, valuable, or appealing, which can facilitate easier purchasing decisions.

• Prices ending with nine
  This creates a perception of value and includes pricing an item at ฿199 instead of ฿200 or ฿499 instead of ฿500. Most customers perceive these prices as lower than they actually are, even though the difference is merely one baht. This approach can help accelerate the customer’s decision-making process.
  
• Price anchoring
  This involves displaying the crossed-out original price alongside a new, discounted promotional price. This strategy can create a perception of savings and value for the customer.
  
• Decoy pricing
  This pricing strategy involves introducing a third option to steer customers toward purchasing a higher-priced product or package that appears to offer the best value. For example, a small coffee is priced at ฿55, a medium at ฿80, and a large at ฿90. The medium size acts as a “decoy,” prompting customers to compare and decide to pay just 10 Baht more to get the large size.
  

Challenges of channel-based pricing

Channel-based pricing allows businesses to set prices that are appropriate for each sales channel. However, using different pricing structures can present several challenges.

Cross-channel price comparison

Customers can easily check and compare product prices online. If they discover that the same product is priced differently across channels, it could lead to dissatisfaction or the perception that the business lacks pricing transparency. Furthermore, customers might choose to purchase only from the channel offering the lowest price, resulting in declining sales for other channels.

Disagreements with partners

Disparities in pricing between a brand’s channels and its distributors can lead to conflicts. For instance, if a business sells products on its own website at a lower price than its distributors do, the distributors could feel they are at a competitive disadvantage. This could impact long-term business relationships and collaboration.

Complexity of managing promotions

Each sales channel typically employs different promotional formats, such as discounts, coupons, flash sales, or platform-exclusive offers. This requires businesses to plan and manage pricing carefully. Poor management can lead to overlapping prices, reduced profit margins, or customer confusion regarding promotional terms and conditions.

Tracking income from each channel

When operating multiple sales channels, businesses must carefully track revenue, costs, and profits for each. Channels often have different fees, shipping costs, commissions, and advertising expenses. Without a clear data system, sales performance assessments could be inaccurate, hindering the ability to make effective pricing decisions.

Brand image consistency

Another challenge associated with channel-specific pricing involves maintaining brand image consistency and customer trust. If product prices vary too significantly across different channels, customers can become confused or perceive a lack of pricing transparency. This could damage the brand’s credibility in the long run.

Therefore, businesses must establish appropriate pricing strategies for each channel, while upholding brand value and demonstrating business integrity.

How to manage channel-based pricing

Businesses can manage their channel-based pricing strategies by following these guidelines.

Comprehensive payment solutions

When developing channel-based pricing strategies, businesses can use a multipayment solution within a single system, such as digital wallets, PromptPay, mobile banking, and credit or debit cards. This allows for systematic pricing, promotions, commissions, and terms and conditions for each channel. This can enable efficient payment management and provide customers with flexibility in choosing various payment methods.

Businesses can consider solutions such as Stripe Payments, which helps them accept multiple payment methods and channels within a single system. This is ideal for managing differentiated pricing across sales platforms.

Checkout pages that boost conversions

Businesses can prioritize an efficient payment experience that directly drives conversions. Therefore, it’s important to choose a secure, customizable checkout page solution designed to simplify the checkout process. Businesses can choose from various payment interface options, including full-page checkout, embedded forms, or payment links that support one-time payments, prorated billing, and subscriptions.

Systematic payment management

When a business has multiple payment channels, it needs a solution to manage payments systematically across those channels.

Products such as Stripe Connect are ideal for marketplaces or businesses with multiple sellers because they can help facilitate onboarding, verify payees, and disburse payments to partners. Businesses can use payment and billing data to calculate revenue sharing and track the performance of campaigns and promotions across different sales channels.

Integration with other management systems

Choose a solution that can flexibly and securely connect with various business systems—such as payment, accounting, inventory management, and customer data analytics systems—via application programming interfaces (APIs), plug-ins, or add-on apps. This allows for real-time recording, updating, and sharing of transaction data, payment statuses, revenue, and partner information between systems.

This connectivity enables businesses selling across multiple channels to consolidate revenue data, break down transactions by platform, and easily and accurately analyze profits, costs, fees, and commissions for each channel.

Close monitoring of finances across all channels

The ability to track overall revenue and payment statuses from each sales channel allows businesses to accurately assess the performance of pricing strategies across each channel or customer segment. This enables data-driven pricing adjustments, which can increase revenue opportunities and maintain long-term competitiveness.

Products such as Stripe Dashboard and Stripe Reporting help businesses systematically track payment statuses across all channels—from sales and outstanding balances to transfer statuses and real-time transaction movement. They also facilitate business operations by consolidating all financial data into a single report.

Data analytics systems for refining pricing strategies

Businesses can implement data analytics systems that support effective and dynamic pricing strategies across sales channels. This can be achieved through AI technology that analyzes key data, such as sales, customer behavior, competitor pricing, product costs, demand across each distribution channel, and high-revenue channels.

These systems can provide precise and efficient pricing, promotions, and package options customized for each channel and market conditions. This can ultimately lead to increased sales and profit margins.

How Stripe Checkout can help

Stripe Checkout is a fully customizable prebuilt payment form that makes it easy for you to accept payments on your website or application.

Checkout can help you:

• Increase conversion: Checkout’s mobile-optimized design and one-click checkout flow make it simple for customers to input and reuse their payment information.

• Reduce development time: Embed Checkout directly into your site, or direct customers to a Stripe-hosted page, with just a few lines of code.

• Improve security: Checkout handles sensitive card data, simplifying PCI compliance.

• Expand globally: Localize pricing in 100+ currencies with Adaptive Pricing, which supports 30+ languages and dynamically displays the payment methods most likely to improve conversion.

• Use advanced features: Integrate Checkout with other Stripe products, such as Billing for subscriptions, Radar for fraud prevention, and more.

• Maintain control: Fully customize the checkout experience, including saving payment methods and setting up post-purchase actions.

Learn more about how Checkout can optimize your payment flow, or get started today.