For a Thai small business the honest answer to "LINE or a website?" is: both, because they do different jobs. LINE is where Thai customers prefer to chat, negotiate and pay, so it's essential for conversation and closing. A website is your searchable, always-on shopfront that gets you found by people who don't yet know you, and reassures them you're real — then funnels them straight into LINE. Use the website to attract and reassure; use LINE to convert. Treating it as either/or is a false choice that quietly costs you customers.
What is LINE genuinely best at?
Conversation and closing. Thai customers are completely comfortable messaging a business, asking questions, haggling a little, and paying — all inside a chat. For warm leads and repeat customers, LINE is unbeatable: it's personal, instant, and exactly where people already spend their day. If a returning customer wants to reorder, LINE is faster than any checkout. The catch is what LINE can't do: a chat can't be discovered on Google, and a first-time customer can't judge whether you're legitimate from a chat window alone.
What is a website best at?
Being found, and building trust with strangers. A website shows up in Google and Maps searches, presents your offer clearly, carries your reviews and photos, and answers the quiet question every new customer asks — "is this business real and safe to deal with?" It works around the clock without you replying, doing its job at 2am when you're asleep. Where LINE excels with people who already know you, a website excels at turning people who don't into people who do.
How do the two work together?
The website attracts and reassures; LINE converts. A new customer finds you in search, lands on a site that looks credible, and — reassured — taps a one-tap LINE button to start a conversation. Now a stranger has become a live chat with a warm lead, and you close it the way you always have. You get the best of both: the reach and trust of a searchable site, and the intimacy and speed of LINE. The website removes the "who are these people?" doubt so LINE can do what it does best.
Which should a brand-new business set up first?
If you have neither, start LINE immediately for conversations — but add a simple website quickly, because without one you're invisible to everyone who searches before they message. The dangerous gap is the customer who's ready to buy, Googles for a business like yours, and never finds you because you exist only inside a chat app. LINE keeps your existing customers close; a website is how you stop missing all the new ones.
Doesn't a website take too long and cost too much to bother?
That used to be the reason owners stuck to LINE alone — and it's no longer true. A modern AI builder can stand up a credible, searchable site in a day, with the LINE button built in, for a small monthly fee. The old trade-off ("LINE is free and instant; a website is slow and expensive") has largely disappeared, which is why the both-and approach is now realistic even for a one-person business.
What does the combined setup look like in practice?
A searchable website with your offer, photos and reviews, a one-tap LINE button on every page, and the discipline to answer LINE quickly. Search finds you, the site reassures, LINE closes, and your regulars stay in the chat where they're happiest. Nothing about your LINE workflow changes — you just stop being invisible to everyone who hasn't met you yet.
How do I avoid losing leads across LINE and my website?
Bring both into one place. The classic small-business leak is a lead that starts on the website and continues on LINE, with no single record of who they are or what they wanted — so follow-ups get missed and repeat customers are forgotten. The fix is a CRM that captures website enquiries as contacts and lets you log your LINE conversations against the same person, so you can see the whole relationship and follow up on time. LINE stays your closing channel and the website stays your discovery channel, but the customer's history lives in one place instead of scattered across a chat thread and an inbox you'll never scroll back through.
Krubly sites come with one-tap LINE and WhatsApp buttons built in, so your searchable shopfront funnels visitors straight into the chat where you close — and a built-in CRM keeps track of the leads it brings you.
