More Singaporeans turn to virtual stores for shopping

[SINGAPORE] More Singaporeans are opting to buy things like clothes, electronic goods, books and even groceries online instead of going to a physical store. And this shows in the e-commerce sales numbers.

Research agency Frost and Sullivan says Singapore was the largest e-commerce market in South-east Asia last year, generating revenues of US$1.7 billion. This is confirmed by a recent survey of shopping habits here by Japanese e-commerce giant, Rakuten. Singaporeans are expected to spend 30 per cent more on online shopping than offline shopping by 2020, the survey says. Today, Singaporeans are spending twice as much time shopping online as compared to five years ago.

Yet another study by Merger Alpha shows that e-commerce revenues in Singapore are predicted to hit S$4.4 billion by next year, driven by rising Internet penetration, smartphone adoption, and a growing affluent middle class. Mobile e-commerce is also taking off in Singapore, with anticipated revenues of S$3.1 billion by next year according to PayPal.