Singaporeans among Asia biggest online shoppers
06 November 2005 0 Comments
It was reported in the Sunday Times that web users from Singapore are among Asia's biggest and most frequent shoppers on the Internet. From the report, I gather that most Singaporeans use the Internet to shop for bargain items. Whereas in the USA, Canada, UK and Australia, people use the Internet to shop because of convenience - lower price is a bonus considering the additional delivery charges.
Speaking of delivery charges, online shoppers from Singapore are very concerned about the delivery charges. Often, they include delivery charge in the price of an item sold online and compare to that sold on the retail store. However, these shoppers did not consider the time and money spent on travelling to the shop to pick up the items. A round trip to the Orhard Road shopping district will cost more than $3 even if you take the public transport and you could easily spend 3 hours doing the shopping and travelling.
Having considered the delivery charges and transport cost issue, online store owners are looking to cheaper means to deliver the goods to their customers quickly. However, without a proper fulfilment center setup in Singapore, it would be very challenging to grow the customers base within Singapore and beyond to the regions e.g. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. When people shop online, they want the items fast and deliver to then in the most economical way.
Online shopping will grow tremedously over the next 2 years and I foresee teething problems to be ironed out and the industry will florish. That's why I already have a Singapore Business Directory website to help web users to search for Singapore-based products and services online.
Speaking of delivery charges, online shoppers from Singapore are very concerned about the delivery charges. Often, they include delivery charge in the price of an item sold online and compare to that sold on the retail store. However, these shoppers did not consider the time and money spent on travelling to the shop to pick up the items. A round trip to the Orhard Road shopping district will cost more than $3 even if you take the public transport and you could easily spend 3 hours doing the shopping and travelling.
Having considered the delivery charges and transport cost issue, online store owners are looking to cheaper means to deliver the goods to their customers quickly. However, without a proper fulfilment center setup in Singapore, it would be very challenging to grow the customers base within Singapore and beyond to the regions e.g. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. When people shop online, they want the items fast and deliver to then in the most economical way.
Online shopping will grow tremedously over the next 2 years and I foresee teething problems to be ironed out and the industry will florish. That's why I already have a Singapore Business Directory website to help web users to search for Singapore-based products and services online.
