Goal
Create a digital onboarding platform for Tops to streamline supplier registration, remove barriers for local SMEs, and support a nationwide local sourcing strategy.
Areas covered
User experience design, supplier journey mapping, backend system architecture, data validation, PDPA and GDPR compliance, agile delivery management, development and scalable integration.
Outcomes
Launched a supplier platform that onboarded more than 2,100 SMEs and enabled the submission of approximately 12,700 products within two months of launch.
Insight Gained
The biggest barrier to SME participation was not the suppliers themselves — it was the complexity of the process they were asked to navigate. Remove that friction, and participation follows.
Local SMEs faced significant barriers — unclear requirements, manual processes, and limited visibility into where their application stood. The result was a supply gap: local producers who wanted to reach Tops’ shelves could not navigate the system well enough to get there, and Tops was missing a category of product its customers wanted.
The challenge was to build a platform that made the process genuinely accessible to small producers — many with limited digital experience — while giving Tops’ internal teams the structured, reliable data they needed to evaluate applications efficiently.
The platform needed to be accessible to suppliers at every level of digital confidence — from established regional producers to small, family-run operations submitting their first product to a national retailer. Reducing friction was not a design aspiration; it was the commercial requirement. Without it, the suppliers Tops most wanted to reach would simply not complete the process.
The solution also needed to be scalable, capable of handling high volumes from launch and adaptable as the programme grew.
These sessions defined key data requirements, validation rules, and operational constraints, establishing alignment with Tops’ business needs before any build began.
Based on these insights, ddx designed a step-by-step application process that adapted dynamically to supplier inputs — making it accessible to users with limited digital experience without simplifying it to the point of losing necessary detail. The platform enabled secure document uploads for certifications and product information, supported by robust data validation to ensure accuracy and consistency.
A backend administrative dashboard gave Tops’ teams the ability to review, track, and manage applications efficiently. Compliance with both PDPA and GDPR requirements was embedded throughout, rather than added at the end.
The commercial impact was substantial. The TongTin programme has now generated more than 20 million baht for participating partners and delivered sales growth of more than 50% for participating SMEs. Products from more than 140 local entrepreneurs are now available across Tops stores and Tops Online, with dedicated TongTin sections introduced in stores nationwide.
The platform continues to scale, forming the operational foundation for a programme that now spans government and private sector partnerships — including collaborations with Government Savings Bank and Ubon Ratchathani University to identify and support local entrepreneurs.
Those two requirements are often in tension — simplifying a form for a first-time user can introduce ambiguity that creates problems downstream.
Evolving requirements throughout delivery demanded close, ongoing communication between ddx and Tops. The complexity of validating detailed supplier and product data underlined the importance of thorough discovery and clear data structures from the outset — decisions made late are considerably more expensive than decisions made early.
The broader lesson was about where participation barriers actually sit. Tops had the commercial will to onboard local SMEs, and those SMEs had products worth selling. What was missing was a process they could actually complete. Build the right process, and the participation follows.
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