Based on a survey released by Picodi, Singaporeans prefer to shop online using their desktops (62%) compared to their smartphones (35%). Despite the global blooming of mobile commerce, only 1 out 3 transactions was made with the use of a mobile device in 2018.
On top of that, when Singaporeans do use their phone for shopping, the average order value was only S$96, which is about S$8 lesser than when they use desktops (S$104) and S$25 lesser when using tablets.
Apart from Singapore, other Asian countries that do more desktop shopping compared to mobile shopping are Malaysia (68%) and Indonesia (57%).
However, if we look at countries that have the highest online purchases made with smartphones, Peru tops the chart with 76%, followed by Nigeria (62%) and Thailand (56%).
As for who does online shopping, it is no surprise that Picodi’s data shows that Singaporean women purchase more than men, 57% and 43% respectively. The most popular categories for shoppers are food on delivery, clothing, grocery, travel and home & garden.
It is also the young generation that opts for online shopping where almost half of all online shoppers (46%) are people between the ages of 25 and 34. They are followed by people aged 35-44 (22%) and 18-24 (17%). The remaining 15% are consumers who are 45 years old and above.
The survey also revealed that the average order value of Singaporean shopper is the highest in August (S$210), closely followed by September (S$189) and July (S$151). Although November had an average order value of a moderate S$125, but it has the highest number of transactions – 16.9% of all the transactions made during the year. This is possible because shoppers shop in a number of different online stores and place more order despite having smaller baskets during checkout.
If we were to look at Singaporeans shoppers’ activity across the week, the survey noted that mobile users are most active on Sunday, but shopping on computers increased during the whole weekend. In addition, Singaporeans prefer to shop in the afternoon and evening, with the peak of sales made on computer occurred between 12pm and 6pm and the mobile shopping activity increased between 6pm and 12am.
