'Tis the season to be stingy: Shoppers spending less this Christmas, UOB survey shows

Shoppers will spend $668 on average.

Singaporean shoppers are making their lists and checking it twice as the holidays roll in, but consumers are expected to spend way less this season compared to last year, according to an annual survey by UOB.
The survey revealed that those polled plan to spend $668 on average this festive season, which is 13% less than 2015 ($769).

And as shoppers hunt for competitive prices, more are heading online even as brick-and-mortar stores remain relevant.

The survey found that while shopping centres still attract the bulk of Christmas shoppers (84 per cent), online shopping grew to 71%. This is 15 percentage points more than in 2015.

Francis Tan, UOB Economist, said that given this year’s nominal wage growth, which is the slowest since 2009, the consumer shift towards e-commerce is expected as more Singaporeans work their way around a tighter Christmas shopping budget.

“Online stores benefit from lower operating costs especially in the area of labour and rental as compared with their brick-and-mortar counterparts. This enables them to offer consumers more competitive prices for products or better bargains,” Tan said.