Singapore is a small and rich city country with a well-developed digital infrastructure and is one of the regions with the highest Internet penetration rates in Southeast Asia. In terms of e-commerce, by 2025, Singapore’s e-commerce market is expected to reach US$5.4 billion.
1. PRODUCT PREFERENCE
According to Nielsen’s 2015 report, “Singapore is one of the most active online shopping consumers in the world and buys a wide range of goods and services.” 41% of Singaporeans like to browse online and then buy online and offline channels. , 17% rely entirely on online shopping.
According to Criteo and Edelman, the top three most common digital purchase categories in Singapore are travel products (64%), apparel and shoes (57%), entertainment products (48%). Followed by 38% of beauty products, 32% of electronic equipment, and 31% of books.
2. PAYMENT METHOD
Credit cards are the preferred payment method for most online shoppers in Singapore.
Singapore’s credit card penetration rate has reached 38%, and on average, everyone has 3.9 circulation cards. Surveys by SingSaver and ShopBack show that as many as 79% of Singapore’s digital buyers prefer to use credit cards for digital purchases; followed by PayPal, accounting for 12%.
Only 3.8% of respondents said they prefer local payment services eNETs (similar to China UnionPay); while cash on delivery and bank transfers account for 2.3% and 2% respectively.
3. LOCAL LOGISTICS
4. LOCAL E-COMMERCE
Among the top 10 e-commerce platforms, 7 are local brands from Singapore. They are: Lazada, EZBuy, Zalora, Shopee, Reebonz, Love, Bonito and Forty Two.For local e-commerce brands, their cultural sensitivity to urban consumer trends have enabled them to dominate Singapore.
Lazada has been operating in Singapore since May 2014 in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. It was launched in Singapore in May 2014. It is one of the mainstream online shopping sites in Southeast Asia and has Facebook fans numbering 18 million. According to the SimilarWeb data survey, Lazada’s average monthly visits were 4.3 million.
EZBuy, formerly 65daigou, ranked third with an average of 2.2 million monthly visits. In the March 2016 Series B round of financing, EZBuy received US$20 million in financing. EZBuy allows users to purchase goods from overseas online stores. The platform handles everything from purchasing goods to shipping and importing goods.
Zalora, the shopping platform for fashion and beauty products, ranks fifth, with an average of 1.2 million visits per month. After selling its business in Thailand and Vietnam, Zalora concentrated its efforts on high potential, high growth markets such as Indonesia and Singapore.
Founded in 2015, Shopee is the largest e-commerce platform in the Pan-Asian and Southeast Asian market and currently covers seven countries and regions, including Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. It also has offices in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Shopee has been on the line for only two years and the annualized GMV has exceeded US$5 billion, making it the fastest growing e-commerce platform in the region.
