Unlike other kids who would play shopkeeper, Siripa’s playground was real. She would take a two-hour bus ride every week to help her sisters sell shoes at the world’s biggest outdoor market, Chatuchak Market.

Growing up with a dream of becoming an entrepreneur, Siripa decided to major in accounting at Thammasat University with the belief that it would give her the skill set she needed.

Siripa started her career as an assistant auditor at Ernst & Young. At the age of 25, she moved to Dumex to become an accounting manager. She then attended Lund University in Sweden for a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and economic growth, innovation and spatial dynamics.

During her studies, Siripa started two small businesses: a store selling jewellery and clothes imported from Thailand and a wedding-gown wholesaler. She learned two great lessons from that experience.

First, there is a difference in buying behaviour between Swedes (who focus on quality) and Thais (who are price-sensitive).

The second lesson was the need to be efficient. As a business owner, it’s important to use your time wisely. Time is money. Don’t do everything yourself.

After completing her master’s, Siripa moved to Denmark to join Danisco, a Danish multinational company. The almost two years she spent there taught her a lot – not only about best practices of business processes on a global level, but the foundations of corporate management.

Siripa returned home with a pocketful of business ideas and a big opportunity she saw while in the West, e-commerce. She founded Allthaicoupon.com. In only three months, it became the biggest deal-aggregator website in Thailand.

In 2013, Siripa joined Zalora Thailand, one of Asia’s leading online fashion destinations, as a corporate director and vice president of finance. During her time there she was involved in the strategic business process and business controls. Equally important, Siripa was a key player in setting up Zalora’s strong finance, accounting, legal and import department.

After two years, Siripa thought it was time to start a new business. One of her ideas was e-groceries.

However, she knew that the e-grocery business needed a lot of support. To her surprise, HappyFresh came knocking on her door out of the blue; her answer was a big “yes”, and she jumped into the family without hesitation.

“I am a big fan of technology; it makes our lives easier,” she said. “HappyFresh allows people to get their groceries [delivered while] going out and spending time on what matters most. Go eat ice cream and walk in the park with your loved ones, and my HappyFresh team will deliver the groceries to your doorstep [for you to find] when you get back.”

As a home-grown middle-class Thai woman, Siripa is now standing strong among other managing directors in the e-commerce industry in Thailand. With her many years of experience, she has shared with us three success factors for business:

Failed? “Please Try Again.”

Pinpoint the right problems.

Be efficient.

Siripa said HappyFresh offered a personal grocery-shopping service that helps you get hand-picked groceries in one hour from supermarkets. HappyFresh offers more than 20,000 products on its platform and operates with 24 supermarket branches, mainly in Bangkok.

“At HappyFresh, we have three secrets to success: customer, customer and CUSTOMER! HappyFresh provides an instant solution for customers, next-hour grocery delivery. We focus on high-quality products and fast delivery.

“After more than 10 months, our customer satisfaction is very high, and I am glad that HappyFresh is making people’s lives easier. We have more and more regular customers every day and they love our personal shoppers who help them shop and call if there’s anything out of stock.

“There’s also a wide choice of replacement products. It’s just like you are remotely doing your own shopping.”

HappyFresh has begun a mission to change the face of traditional grocery shopping. E-groceries is the last frontier of e-commerce and is considered a tough business, as it needs to convert consumer behaviour. However, Siripa strongly believes that Thailand will be there.