JD.com, a leading Chinese e-commerce company, is looking for as many Thai products as possible to sell on its online platform.
Chenkai Ling, vice-president of corporate strategy and investment head of JD.com International, said the top six priority items for Chinese buyers are snacks, beverages, textiles, frozen food, pet care products and beauty products.
"The Thai market is still small but it will be an important Asean market in the near future," Mr Chenkai said.
JD.com debuted the JDThai platform this June, offering 400 Thai items.
He said the company found sales on JDThai grew five times faster than expected.
The most popular items for Chinese buyers on JDThai are beauty products, snacks, home products and frozen food.
The company is mulling adding fresh food to JDThai in the near future, said Mr Chenkai.
"With cooperation from Central Group, the company hopes to offer more Thai products on JD.com in the future," he said.
"We expect continued strong sales of Thai products among our Chinese customers. Global sales of Thai products on JD.com are projected to reach 100 billion baht within 3-5 years."
In September last year, JD.com announced an aggregate investment of up to US$500 million (16.5 billion baht) with Central Group to establish two joint ventures in Thailand covering e-commerce and fintech services.
Under the terms of the agreement, half of the investment will come from Central Group, with the remainder coming from JD.com and JD.com's strategic partner for its Indonesian e-commerce business, JD Finance and Provident Capital.
JD.com started its business 15 years ago and sales in the past 12 years continuously grew by over 150% per year.
The company has 300 million active customers via its e-commerce platform and 170,000 stores on its platform.
JD.com boasts 521 warehouses in China, with businesses in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
JD.com sales grew by 30% last year to US$56 billion, faster than retailers in the US market.
