More and more Singaporeans enjoy online shopping

The online shopping market for groceries in Singapore has been growing fast this year, according to statistics of payment service provider PayPal.

PayPal said that consumers spent 200 percent more in the first eight months of the year than they did in the whole of last year, according to Xinhua News, citing a Straits Times report.

A surge in growth was still expected towards the festive period at the end of the year.

Shopping online has been appealing to consumers who are Internet-savvy but time-strapped. They usually pay an extra 7 Singapore dollars to 12 Singapore dollars to have their the items delivered.

Items bought online often include essentials such as rice, milk powder and diapers, as well as heavy and bulky items like mineral water.

At household.sg, customers now spend an average of 80 Singapore dollars at a go, twice what they spent six months ago when the website was launched. Delivery is free for orders worth above 40 Singapore dollars.

Demand at the online stores of supermarket chains like FairPrice, Cold Storage and Carrefour was rising, with FairPrice saying that the number of customers at its eight-year-old online store growing by 25 percent year on year.

Xinhua News.