BANGKOK — You may have filled your online shopping cart with an Everything Tote Bag, but if you can’t read Mandarin, then you’re out of luck for that year-end treat-yo self purchase.
A number of Thai shoppers were scratching their heads on Wednesday when they found that the Kate Spade New York website inexplicably sent them to a distributor based in China instead.
The redirect appears to be based on the user’s locations. In case of Thailand, clicking on the link will send the shoppers to Katespade.cn, with the entire website in Chinese. At the bottom of the webpage, there’s even information of a business permit issued by the Chinese government. Products are listed in Chinese Yuan.
Posts on the Kate Spade New York’s Facebook page for Thailand link to the website of the Pat Luxury Group, a Thai distributor of luxury goods, which writes in English and lists products in Thai baht, however.
The confusion isn’t just a mild annoyance for the shoppers who can’t read Chinese either. The Chinese page lists items at a slightly higher price than the Thai distributor: the Everything Puffy Large Tote is 9,150 baht on the local website, but CNY2,200 (10,166 baht) on the Chinese website.
Likewise, the Everything Puffy Cat Large Tote is 11,900 baht on the Thai website, but CNY2,800 (12,938 baht) on the .cn page.
Kate Spade Thailand Facebook page did not respond to messages as of press time. The brand has about 10 stores around Thailand.
