Singaporeans, Malaysians plan more online shopping this feative season: PayPal

The ‘PayPal skip the queues survey 2012’, revealed that 2012 is the year for mobile commerce as Malaysians and Singaporeans increasingly turn to mobile devices to shop on-the-go.

It estimated that online shopping would allow Singaporeans to save 45 hours of their time, while Malaysians would save 36 hours as they are able to avoid spending hours in traffic jams, battling the crowds, and waiting in long queues to pay.

Marie Gruy, managing partner at PHD Singapore, said it is unsurprising that Singapore is fast becoming one of the most prolific online shopping nations in Southeast Asia, given that the country has the highest smartphone penetration in the region and the third highest in the world.

“The reasons are clear,” she told Campaign Asia-Pacific. “Mobile platforms undoubtedly provide a relatively pain free browsing alternative with 24/7 access. However shipping can then represent both a significant delay and cost to a shopper who is after instant gratification or a genuine bargain.”

Nevertheless, she noted that while many retailers recognise that they are unlikely to permanently convert shoppers to virtual store alternatives, they are trying to retain both business models or the ‘bricks-and-clicks’ approach, providing both alternatives for their customers 24/7, 365 days of the year.  

Commissioned by PayPal, GfK conducted the online research survey to measure Malaysians’ year-end festive shopping behaviors.  The fieldwork was conducted from 15 October to 7 November and the survey polled a representative sample of 1000 online shoppers aged 18 and above in each country.

The festive shopping season is defined to be the three-month period from October to December.

Gareth Ellen, regional digital planning director at OgilvyAction, said shopping is a social exercise in Asia, and Singaporeans are becoming increasingly aware of online shopping, noting that the survey should also indicate the items online shoppers want to buy.

“Shoppers have begun using mobile to find the best availability and deal when even when they go shopping physically,” he added. “Online shopping is about the offerings that make sense to shoppers and it is the value not the pricing or discount.”

In Singapore, smartphones and tablets emerged as the top choice to shop online with during the holiday season by almost half of respondents (43 per cent), followed by the use of laptops (37 per cent) and desktops (20 per cent).

The study also showed mobile apps are still more popular than mobile websites for Singaporean online shoppers. A total of 78 per cent of respondents prefer to use mobile apps to access online retail stores, 49 per cent would like to use location-based mobile shopping apps to find deals, while 38 per cent want to scan QR codes shown on advertisements and promotions.

The same trend is seen in Malaysia when 75 per cent of respondents prefer to use mobile apps to access online retail stores, 54 per cent would like to use location-based mobile shopping apps to find deals, and 39 per cent want to scan QR codes shown on advertisements and promotions.

The PayPal survey also revealed that user-generated content on social media platforms have a strong influence on what Singaporeans and Malaysians buy during the festive shopping season.

More than half of the Singaporeans (68 per cent) and Malaysians (76 per cent) research online before they shop, and that the reviews would influence their (Singaporeans: 70 per cent; Malaysians: 68 per cent) purchase decision.

It also revealed that half of the shoppers (Singaporeans: 43 per cent; Malaysians: 57 per cent) actively search social networks for shopping deals and promotions; and more than 40 per cent would redeem offers while browsing social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.