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    UOB (Thai) collaborates with Lazada and Bentoweb to help Thai online retailers grow faster across multiple online channels

    UOB (Thai)’s launches small business solution including unsecured lending of up to one million baht and access to Bentoweb’s e-commerce management package

    United Overseas Bank (Thai) (UOB (Thai)) is helping Thai online retailers to accelerate their online business growth through a new bundled solution that offers faster access to working capital and effective e-commerce management tools. To offer solutions that help Thai enterprises tap the growth potential of Thailand’s burgeoning e-commerce industry, UOB (Thai) is offering UOB BizMerchant, a new unsecured loan for online retailers that sell their products or services on Lazada’s e-marketplace and a free, three-month’s access to Bentoweb’s Professional Package.

    Thailand is now the second-largest internet economy in Southeast Asia with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 33 per cent in 2015-2019. The growth of the country’s internet economy is largely driven by e-commerce, which is expected to rise in value from $5 billion in 2019 to $18 billion by 2025[1]. This growth potential presents immense opportunities for online retailers to increase the revenue they generate by expanding their sales channels to e-commerce sites. However, to support this growth they will need additional working capital to ensure that they fund the costs associated with expanding their business.

    To help businesses in this regard, the Bank is offering UOB BizMerchant, a new unsecured loan for online retailers that sell their products or services on Lazada’s e-marketplace. UOB BizMerchant offers loans of up to one million baht over a 12-month period. The Bank has also reduced the time taken to review an applicant’s loan from seven days to only one day, by using Lazada data’s insights to assess an applicant’s credit history and score.

    Ms Sayumrat Maranate, Country Head of Business Banking, UOB (Thai), said, “We recognise the strong demand among online retailers for access to working capital so that they can manage their fast growing e-commerce businesses. With more Thai SMEs relying on e-commerce to increase their revenue, we also wanted to help them manage the pain points of managing multiple sales channels, customer deliveries and inventory through more effective online tools. By forging partner ecosystems with industry specialists such as Lazada and BentoWeb, we are able to speed up the time it takes for the businesses to access working capital and thereby provide a solution that addresses their needs.”

    Individual sellers and juristic entities that have operated an online store on Lazada Thailand for at least six months and with accumulated turnover of more than 500,000 baht over the same period are eligible to apply for a UOB BizMerchant loan. In addition, they will receive free, three-month’s access to Bentoweb’s Professional Package to manage every e-commerce process centrally, conveniently and cost effectively. The package includes inventory storage and management, digital marketing and sales across every channel to the distribution and fulfilment of customer orders.

    Mr Weerapong Goo, Head of Retail at Lazada Thailand, said, “The collaboration with UOB (Thai), demonstrates our commitment to empowering small businesses with the right environment to foster growth. With UOB's banking solution, Lazada's online retailers can focus on growing their business and be assured that their business has sufficient cashflow to meet its operating expenses.”

    Mr Nutthaseth Sirinanthananon, Founder of Bentoweb, said, “Our services cover all aspects of the e-commerce operations, from starting out a business to getting it off the ground. Online retailers seeking sales opportunities have to open a separate merchant account for each e-commerce site where they want to have a presence. In the end, they end up managing multiple e-commerce accounts and reconciling inventory and sales for each channel. We are glad to be a part of this collaboration with UOB (Thai) and Lazada to help online retailers grow their businesses through more effective management of their sales across multiple online channels.”

     

    To find out more about UOB (Thai)’s collaboration with Lazada and BentoWeb on this e-commerce bundled solution, please call UOB Business Banking Centre at 02-345-3555.

    [1] Source: Google, Temasek, Bain & Company e-Conomy SEA 2019 Report

    11th December 2019 
    For More information, please contact
    Strategic Communications and Customer Advocacy
    United Overseas Bank (Thai) Pcl. 
    Orawee Wiriyathananon Tel. 0-2343-4761