Thailand’s e-commerce stores could grow as fast as 20 percent a year for 2010 from 47,000 operators in 2009, according to data released by the National Statistical Office.

The statistical bureau’s recent poll shows that 76.5 percent of Thai commercial web sites are small business with not more than 5 staffers. Amongst them, 82.6 percent operate business-to-consumer (B2C) activity for the fashion and jewelry industries.

However, transactions with high value are from the auto industry, which accounted for 30 percent of the market 527 billion baht in 2009.

Somwang Leungpaibule, director at Thai e-Commerce Association, said the e-commercial activities in Thailand still has potential to grow due to the market’s limited to educate consumers.

He said 39.9 percent of e-commerce businesses’ advertisement is in the internet domain, while the country has limited access to the internet from remote areas.

The major problem is that consumers do not trust the system due to delay and high-cost in deliveries.

Mr. Somwang said 20 percent of consumers are found filling fake information in an order form.

However, he is upbeat that the market could grow by 10 to 20 percent for 2010, pushed by changes in the consumer behavior and the increasing in popularity in social networking web sites.