Online shopping may plateau in short term; growth to lag physical retail sales

ONLINE shopping, which enjoyed a boom during the Covid-19 pandemic, could plateau in the months ahead, said watchers, as Singapore's borders reopen and measures ease, allowing more shoppers to return to physical stores.

Online retail made up nearly a quarter of all sales in May 2020, according to the Department of Statistics, when the Republic was in the midst of an 8-week “circuit breaker” that saw the closure of non-essential businesses from early April 2020 to stem the spread of Covid-19.

That proportion has fallen since and is now mostly hovering somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent, although there has also been a gradual upward trend.