The trend of spending like there is no tomorrow, where young adults are borrowing money for the first time sooner and more frequently than before without a thought of saving for the future, is a problem that is not unique to Thai society but which is happening globally.
From the point of view of business, the more, the faster, and the easier people spend means the more profit it will make.
However, a visionary business leader who cares about employees, the long-term growth of the organization, and social responsibility may think differently.
Such is the case with Mr. Piyasak Ukritnukun, Managing Director of Ngern Tid Lor Public Company Limited. At RESHAPE 2021 where he contributed his insights and experiences as a keynote speaker on the topic Frictionless Consumption and Unintended Consequences in conjunction with other global industry leaders.
Piyasak talked about overborrowing and causes of overspending such as online shopping addiction, peer pressure on social media, frictionless delivery services, tempting promotion and precise targeting advertisement. These give consumers a frictionless buying experience to spend over than necessary. The combination of experience improvements in social media, e-commerce, logistics, and financing are contributing to global overconsumption and overborrowing issue.
He also added that before pointing a finger on somebody, he proposed solutions to help young adults avoid a debt trap due to overspending. He urged business organizations to work together to raise consumer awareness, introduce intentional friction to prevent unintended consequences, and promoting business ethics which may thus be a light on the overspending problem in this age and help consumers to think consciously before buying.