Thai Demographic Structure and Opportunity in Crisis of Physical Retail Businesses

Abstract

Modern technology in the digital world bring about a change in the way of doing business especially in the retail business. Instead of shopping from physical store, they shop from online store. Result in a crisis of physical retail business which it has to deal with. Therefore, the objectives of this article are: 1) To study the changes in the demographic structure of Thailand 2) To study the crisis of global retail business and Thailand 3) To explore the opportunities of the physical retail business. The study founds that the market competition in the retail business that has new entrants such as online stores. They facilitate shopping from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, hence consumers changing their behavior towards online shopping more. As a result, sales through the physical retail business decreased and some business had to be closed. However, in the crisis, there is an opportunity arising from the change in the demographic structure of Thailand towards an aging society. Whose behavior likes to meet and socialize with friends outside the home and the target location for them is a physical retail store. The physical retail business will have to adapt to seek opportunities in the development of space utilization in existing stores that focus on selling into a space of experience. And innovations are used to help facilitate the elderly who come to use the service,
which will be a way for businesses to survive.