THE convenience of buying online is gradually attracting more customers in Myanmar, though businesses that sell on the internet say it will take time for e-shopping to realise its potential.Websites offering jewellery, groceries and books and periodicals have been operating for more than four years, but e-shopping accounts for only a small percentage of total sales, say their operators.

One of the biggest challenges facing e-shopping is the need to arrange online payments.

“Though one can say e-business is improving, it hasn’t reached a satisfactory position,” said Ko Kyaw Htet Soe from www.foreverspace.com.mm, which has been selling e-books and digital versions of journals and other periodicals since May 2003.

“Myanmar e-shopping business needs some infrastructure, such as an online payment system, to achieve success,” he said, adding that there were also difficulties in arranging deliveries.Ko Kyaw Htet Soe said the business had overcome the lack of an online payment system by introducing prepaid cards worth K5000.

Customers buy online by using the card number and a personal identification number (PIN), he said.

Ko Kyaw Htet Soe said Myanmar Forever June Co. Ltd decided to launch the site because of the success achieved by foreign companies which sell e-books.

He said periodicals sold on the site were updated almost daily but the range of fiction and non-fiction e-books on sale depended on availability.

Ko Kyaw Htet Soe said even though the website targeted Myanmar living overseas, who account for the biggest share of sales, it also attracts many domestic customers.

The website, which has 15,000 registered users, attracts about 30,000 hits a month, he said.

The City Mart supermarket chain, which established its www.city.com..mm e-shopping portal in 2003, uses a cash on delivery system as payment for online purchases.

City Mart marketing manager Daw Thet Wah Win said online customers need to spend a minimum of K50,000, with a K5000 delivery fee waived on purchases exceeding K100,000.All products sold by the chain, with the exception of perishable goods such as ice-cream, fruit and vegetables, may be ordered online, she said.

Daw Thet Wah Win was optimistic that online purchases, which account for only a small percentage of sales, would increase as the number of people using the internet grows.

An increasing number of people were also using the chain’s telephone ordering service to shop from the comfort of their homes, she added.

A pioneer of e-shopping in the country is Myanmar VES Joint Venture Co., Ltd, which launched online sales of gems and jewellery through its www.mvesjewlry.com.mm website in 2002.A company spokeswoman said the site received an average of about 600 hits, but only one or two orders, a month. However, online sales had increased by about five percent a year since the service was launched, she said.

In the absence of an online payment system, the company relies on cash on delivery, with customers required to spend a minimum of US$200, she said.
Deliveries are made to overseas customers once a cash transfer is made.