(1) RS LiveWell Company Limited (“LiveWell”) (Previously Lifestar Company Limited) is a product R&D, designer and developer by outsourcing production to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) for health and beauty products especially innovative solutions that are based on “Innovative Health and Wellness” concept to apply science as the basis to conduct R&D of products to address healthcare needs of consumers through products that meet international standards. There are 4 main brands under LiveWell’s product portfolio as listed below:
- “well u”: dietary supplement and skin nourishment product for holistic health and beauty from applying science and innovation to the benefits of natural ingredients.
- “Vitanature+”: dietary supplement and haircare products made from herbal extracts with the perfect combination of local wisdom and innovation.
- “CAMU C” : a functional drink using innovation and natural properties to promote health and confidence of new generations through best-selected ingredients for sustainable health.
- “Lifemate” : health & wellness products for pets that promote overall health of pets under the concept “Holistic Wellness” for your life companions by adopting innovative technology.
For the product development of each type of product, LiveWell has collaborated with domestic and international research institutes and manufacturers with international standards to analyze database on customer needs gathered from various distribution channels including telesales. This helps the Company to understand trends, market demand and customer needs to be able to develop products customers want. For products under well u and Vitanature+ which are mostly dietary supplement, distribution is mainly through RS Mall and recently expanded to online channels and marketplaces such as Shopee and Lazada. For the functional drink CAMU C, main distribution channel is convenience stores to target health-conscious customers to be able to purchase the products easily every day at any time. Unlike CAMU-C, Lifemate products for pets rely more on traditional trade which are mostly retail pet shops of over 400 locations across Thailand.
(2) RS Mall Company Limited (“RS Mall”) is the main distribution channels of health products through both offline and online platforms. These platforms are to sell products and services that promote good health and wellbeing in a holistic way under the concept “Good Health & Wellbeing). Product quality and standards are guaranteed and certified by the Food and Drug Administration, ready to be “Wellbeing Partners” of every consumer to live a comfortable, happy and healthy life. The Company’s product offering ranges from health, beauty and fashion, electrical appliances, home appliances to animal food - from both LiveWell and partners who are product owners. The Company currently carries more than 600 items in its portfolio which can be categorized in to 4 groups namely, 1) Mental Health, 2) Physical Health, 4) Home and Pets Health and 4) Social and Travel Health.
During the past year, RS Mall has broadened the variety of its introductions of different products for different marketing channels consisting of
- TV distribution through RS’s owned TV media including Channel 8 and digital TV channels that are partners of the Company which can reach over 5 million viewers per day
- The Company's online media platforms, including www. rsmall.co.th and LINE SHOP through @RS Mall with over 828,000 accounts, as well as other leading online platforms such as Shopee and Lazada. Also, RS Mall has extended its online distribution channels by launching RS Mall application on smartphones to accommodate customers to be able to order products online more conveniently and faster. RS Mall shop was also launched on V-Avenue by AIS 5G to create and deliver virtual shopping experience for customers.
- Telesales and/or digital marketing are deployed to facilitate customers to order and purchase of products and services via phones. The Company reaches out to customers by phone to introduce its appealing products as suggested by the analysis from existing customer database. At the end of 2022, the customer base has grown to more than 1.8 million customers. RS also adopted Predictive Dialing System (PDS) to connect with the outbound call center to ensure maximized call results by reducing loss from no answer, busy lines or voicemails. The Company consistently improves PDS including the implementation of the Voice Analytics system to analyze phone conversations using artificial intelligence (AI) to better reach target customer groups and learn in-depth of their needs to be able to develop products and services that better address their requirements.
In addition, RS Mall values existing customers who are loyal to the brand and added a team of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to take care of 7,000 VIP customers with the highest purchase values to be able to recommend different products and promotions selected exclusively for each VIP customer. This is to further promote customer satisfaction and maintain their loyalty to the RS Mall brand in the long run as well as generating higher revenue from this group of customers.
On product delivery, the Company outsources the activity to external parties. Customers in Bangkok and metropolitan areas will receive their products within the next day following the order confirmation of the products and services. Customers in other provinces will receive the product within 1 to 5 days. They can choose to pay cash on delivery or via credit card; however, more than 90 percent of customers choose to pay cash on delivery
(3) RS Connect Company Limited (“RS Connect”) operates commerce business through direct sales. During 2022, the Company acquired direct sales business of Unilever Life (ULife) from Unilever Thai Holdings Company Limited including popular brands such as Aviance, Beyonde and I-Fresh and the product development team with international product development expertise
Note that RS Connect Company Limted further expanded its direct sales business into 2 different models.
- ULife is a direct sales business under MLM (Multi Level Model) or network makerting that focuses on selling the products and extending sales network. The majority of products are health and consumer products targeting prestige and middle standard groups.
- De Beste is a direct sales business under SLM (Single Level Model) or one-layer direct sales that distributors will obtain products from the Company to directly sell to consumers (end users) emphasizing on online social commerce. The Company focuses on developing health and beauty products with affordable prices to target mainly younger generations.
(4) RS Pet All Company Limited (“RS Pet All”) was foudned in the 4th quarter of 2022 to operate pet business with the objective to expand into retail and service business related to pets to provide a full range of services for pets.
2) Market and Competition
In 2022, Thai economy was pressured by rising world’s oil price resulted from the disputes in Europe which led to higher transportation costs and surging inflation rates even though the government issued economic measures to counter the situation such as flood relief programs, “Kon La Krung” (subsidy) and “Shop Dee Mee Kuen” (tax deductions on shopping) that helped boost private demand. E-Commerce market continued to grow as consumers are used to ordering consumer goods online during the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors accounted for gradual recovery of commerce business and the growth is likely to resume as there are positive factors in the global economy that help stimulate Thai economy.
During 2022, LiveWell has structured products, sales team and marekting team for our 4 major brands to put an emphasis on product development and marketing for each brannd as well as expanding into online platforms to support the growth of e-commerce market. Moreover, we focus on content creation to sell different products and communicate directly with target consumers via multiple media of RS Mall and build trust on products through the product development that involves experts and specialists. Note that the Company launched new products in response to demand trends in the market in particular periods to grasp opportunties and generate revenue from market with not many players such as CAMU C and Plus with Hemp which received positive responses from consumers who care about their health and are willing to try the benefits of hemps.
Direct sales business is considered a popular sales channel of consumers as Thailand is ranked th 2nd largest direct sales market in Southeast Asia. Realizing the opportunity, the Company acquired direct sales unit “ULife” of Unilever (Thailand) Company Limited with a network of 150,000 members and ready infrastructure including distribution channels, brands and products, management systems and operating software as well as product development team. This was an accelerated move to enter into direct sales market. As Ulife is integrated under RS Group, competitive advantage and synergy are realized while initially ULife focused on the distribution of premium products. Under RS Group, market becomes broader and product range is more extensive to include products for daily lives. Furhermore, another sales format is developed called “SLM” or Single Level Model for the brand “De Beste”. The brand targets new generations who prefer sales through online channels and social commerce to build sales network. Online vendors are our sales agents to target middle-class customers (mass) and above. This further strengthens the ecosystem under entertainmerce model.
As for RS Pet All, our pet-related business, social structure is changing toward single family and the COVID-19 outbreak since 2019 caused people to find indoor activities while spending more time at home. Having pets became one of the preferred activities as pet humanization trend has gained traction which people treat pets as their family members. Therefore, buying food for pets requires extra care. RS expanded the pet food business through Lifemate brand as the Company spotted opportunities and growth potential for pet-related business which is expected to grow 8-9% per year for the next 4-5 years. The market is still considered as “Blue Ocean” with no apparent market leader. As a result, the Company established RS Pet All Company Limited with an aspiration to provide a full range of products and services for pets in the future.
3) Procurement of Products and Services
Product development units of both RS LiveWell and RS Connect work in collaboration with domestic and international research institutes to come up with formulas for key ingredients of each product. Once key ingredients or extracts are obtained, the Company will commission original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to manufacture finished products for the Company.