Brace yourselves for slower e-commerce growth: Worldpay

The market is expected to grow by a measly 9% by 2021, lower than most rates in Asia.

Singapore is now the third largest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, but it should brace itself for a growth slowdown as 73% of the nation already shops online, Worldpay revealed.

According to its Global Payments Report, the e-commerce market is set to grow by 9% to US$6.5b by 2021. China's e-commerce market is seen to grow by 11%, South Korea by 19%, and India by 24%.

However, opportunities still await a new wave of mobile shoppers. M-commerce, or mobile commerce, is set to grow by 33% in the next five years, Worldpay said.

Cross-border shopping is also expected to be more popular, with more than half of Singapore's online consumers buying from global sellers.

The study also found out that 66% of shoppers still prefer to pay with credit cards, but alternative payment methods are gaining some share of the payments market.

Bank transfers and e-wallets are both set to nearly double in share by 2021, increasing from 11-21% and 13-21% respectively, according to Worldpay.