#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Thailand and Asia News >  >  > Business, Finance & Economics in Thailand >  >  How to start exporting from Thailand?

## North Thailander

Can anyone offer advice on how to start exporting/selling online from Thailand?
I plan to set up a website with travel information about Thailand  - and include an online shop
Does one need to have set up a registered co. to do this? Or can any individual do it?

Any sites/resources where I can learn how to do this?
or is it quite easy and I'm making it more complicated than it is

Thanks

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## bkkrunner

> Can anyone offer advice on how to start exporting/selling online from Thailand?
> I plan to set up a website with travel information about Thailand - and include an online shop
> Does one need to have set up a registered co. to do this? Or can any individual do it?
> 
> Any sites/resources where I can learn how to do this?
> or is it quite easy and I'm making it more complicated than it is
> 
> Thanks


 
I disagree with the negative quote above. Use Ebay, Alibaba.Com etc. Spend 2-3 months going round the country finding products and contacting their producers for prices, production capacity etc. Photograph painstaikingly every single item in high resolution (To catalogue online). Learn about how SEO works to drive google searchers to your site. If you aren't successful you dont need to worry about work permit etc because you wont be doing it! (you have to eat).

However, if things work out (And with hard work they mostly do), you will have the income to do things "above board"

Good Luck!

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## klongmaster

> I disagree with the negative quote above.


I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject...oh and what quote are you referring to?..

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## HermantheGerman

Do Thais make anything on their own thats worth exporting ?

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## superman

> Do Thais make anything on their own thats worth exporting ?


Yeah, fakes. :smiley laughing:

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## SiLeakHunt

I've sold stuff on Ebay in the past, not huge profits and the exchange rate isn't massively favourable for selling to farnagland at the moment but it can start you going and give you market awareness for what's going on whats selling and whats available, and get you familiar with wholesalers.

there's loads of places in Panthip will knock you up a webshop as well if you can get yourself in there.

Cheers

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## North Thailander

Thanks SiLeakHunt for the helpful response

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## Maxion

Words of advice from a friend who exports car parts from Asia to the west via online shopping.  Make sure your online activities are hosted and administered outside of Asia.  The only activities performed in the country of manufacture should be stock control shipping and administration of monies.

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## SiLeakHunt

for some reason things you'd ordinarily have an interest in seem to work eg I'm into clothes and fashion in a certain way, so I did well selling tshirt, not sure why maybe becasue I could enthuse about the product, maybe because I knew what worked I don't know, if you hate motorbikes selling motorbike parts won't work for you.

There'll be a few hiccups here and there but thats part of the learning curve.

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## Beadle

> there's loads of places in Panthip will knock you up a webshop as well if you can get yourself in there.


If you can't do that yourself then you shouldn't sell online.

You'll need to find products that are cheap to ship, otherwise nobody will order as they will be able to find them cheaper overall back home.

It's a difficult market at the moment with the strength of the Baht and stuff (especially garments) being ridiculously cheap in the West.

You'd be far better off in China for online selling.




> However, if things work out (And with hard work they mostly do), you will have the income to do things "above board"


To do it legit you will need a Thai Company Limited and minimum 2 million Baht capital fully paid up. You will also need to employ 4 Thais per foreigner to obtain a work permit. 

You can own 49% of the company but if you want it majority foreign owned (over 50%) then you will need to apply for a foreign business exemption as retail and wholesale sales is a business prohibited to majority foreign owned companies. 

Nominee shareholders will be investigated and prosecuted these days and if they find you are using Thais not involved in the business they will prosecute you for circumventing the foreign business laws. If more than 39% of the company is foreign owned you are virtually sure to be investigated to make sure you are not trying to circumvent these laws.

The only possible way to do it initially is to do it illegally but limit your exposure and risk.

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## melvbot

I had a nice little website running selling a product to the UK/Europe thats made in Thailand. Like has been mentioned the baht/£ rate is diabolical at the moment so even a small fluctuation can hit profits as cost to buy and send goes up while the profit gets squeezed.

 The sites now offline as Im back in the UK but I was getting a hell of a lot of emails asking if/when I'd be selling again. Shame really.

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## Perota

> Words of advice from a friend who exports car parts from Asia to the west via online shopping. * Make sure your online activities are hosted and administered outside of Asia*.  The only activities performed in the country of manufacture should be stock control shipping and administration of monies.


Why ?

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## melvbot

> Originally Posted by Maxion
> 
> 
> Words of advice from a friend who exports car parts from Asia to the west via online shopping. * Make sure your online activities are hosted and administered outside of Asia*.  The only activities performed in the country of manufacture should be stock control shipping and administration of monies.
> 
> 
> Why ?


Who in their right mind would host a site in Thailand for international users?

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## melvbot

> Originally Posted by Maxion
> 
> 
> Words of advice from a friend who exports car parts from Asia to the west via online shopping. * Make sure your online activities are hosted and administered outside of Asia*.  The only activities performed in the country of manufacture should be stock control shipping and administration of monies.
> 
> 
> Why ?


Who in their right mind would host a site in Thailand for international users?

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## Perota

^ He said ASIA, not Thailand. 

Taxwise, HK and Spore are good place to set up a business

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## zubber

if you have to ask here you are obviously not up to the job , a course in Business studies may be better for you .

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## melvbot

Sorry I meant Asia

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## Smug Farang Bore

If your going to set up an online legit business in HK or Singapore. Its going to cost you, so I hope you know your market is strong.
Doing business in Toyland is nigger rigged so you can have a go...

...Many have tried  and many have...... ::chitown::

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## English Noodles

> The sites now offline as Im back in the UK but I was getting a hell of a lot of emails asking if/when I'd be selling again. Shame really.


I'll take it over for you. :Smile:

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## slackula

> I had a nice little website running selling a product to the UK/Europe thats made in Thailand. Like has been mentioned the baht/£ rate is diabolical at the moment so even a small fluctuation can hit profits as cost to buy and send goes up while the profit gets squeezed.


Why would the baht/£ rate affect you if you are selling to Europe?

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## superman

> Why would the baht/£ rate affect you if you are selling to Europe?


Increase in postal charges and less return on goods sold in the UK ? Come on "slackula", I had you for being a sharp knife.

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## melvbot

> Why would the baht/£ rate affect you if you are selling to Europe?


Because people were paying in £'s from the UK into a Paypal account, this was then withdrawn to my UK bank account but then withdrawn in Thailand from an ATM.

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## superman

> Because people were paying in £'s from the UK into a Paypal account, this was then withdrawn to my UK bank account but then withdrawn in Thailand from an ATM.


You've time to edit your mistake. Or am I reading it wrong ?

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## Maxion

> Originally Posted by Maxion
> 
> 
> Words of advice from a friend who exports car parts from Asia to the west via online shopping. * Make sure your online activities are hosted and administered outside of Asia*.  The only activities performed in the country of manufacture should be stock control shipping and administration of monies.
> 
> 
> Why ?




   Hosting and payment systems are cheaper and more efficient outside of countries like Thailand. Billing through a local system just adds more complications to the process. Where would you prefer to hold your money, a Thai merchant account or a British one?

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## baldrick

use google checkout or paypal for your transactions - do not try and set up a site with your own payment gateway - maybe when your turnover is huge you can then change.

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## Humbert

Are you planning on owning the inventory? You may consider letting your website be the marketing entity and make the local manufacturer responsible for order fulfillment. Then you will not be required to have an export license. Obviously then you can set a paypal account for collection and pay the manufacturer as soon as you are paid.

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## DaffyDuck

> Originally Posted by HermantheGerman
> 
> 
> Do Thais make anything on their own thats worth exporting ?
> 
> 
> Yeah, fakes.


No, that's the Chinese.

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## slackula

> Increase in postal charges and less return on goods sold in the UK ? Come on "slackula", I had you for being a sharp knife.


Yeah, but he said he was selling to Europe so I thought the Euro/Baht exchange rate would be more relevant than the quid one.  :Confused:

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## SiLeakHunt

> Are you planning on owning the inventory? You may consider letting your website be the marketing entity and make the local manufacturer responsible for order fulfillment. Then you will not be required to have an export license. Obviously then you can set a paypal account for collection and pay the manufacturer as soon as you are paid.


 
Drop shipping its called !

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## Perota

> Originally Posted by Perota
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Originally Posted by Maxion
> ...


Tks for the explanation.

Actually it was my mistake, it was the online activities that should be hosted out of Asia, I thought Maxion was talking about the company. Should read more carefully next time before posting.

Then regarding where I prefer holding my money, definitively not in Thailand, but in Europe I will be worry about the tax man. I'm not familiar with online business but if you make profit, I guess you should pay tax somewhere, right ?

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## melvbot

> Originally Posted by melvbot
> 
> Because people were paying in £'s from the UK into a Paypal account, this was then withdrawn to my UK bank account but then withdrawn in Thailand from an ATM.
> 
> 
> You've time to edit your mistake. Or am I reading it wrong ?


Tell me what you think the mistake is and Ill tell you if youre reading it wrong.

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## Overman

> if you make profit, I guess you should pay tax somewhere


Tax is for mugs.

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## SiLeakHunt

There are also various rulings that certain items sold over the net and sent into the UK are tax exempt (or there were when I was looking at doing this legitimately) admitedly that was some time ago, it was a ruling I saw on the DTI's website. The rational was that it was hard to rule where the money was being earned and who the tax was due to although I'm sure Monsieur brown will have put the brakes on that little sniff of a chance of prosperity that people might have had...

Cheers

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## Beadle

Pound falling again yesterday. went under 48thb for the first time in 10 months. Good luck those of you who export to the UK, you are going to need it.

45thb to the £ predicted.  :ssssh:

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