Singapore loses to Thailand in online shopping

Survey respondents from Thailand report an 80% likelihood to buy online while mobile shopping in Singapore declined 10%.

The gap in online shopping between established and growth markets is narrowing in Asia/Pacific largely due to increased enthusiasm for mobile shopping in South East Asia markets, according to the latest MasterCard Worldwide Online Shopping Survey.

The survey, which serves as a benchmark that measures consumers’ propensity to shop online, was conducted across 25 markets between 5 December 2011 and 6 February 2012. The report for the Asia/ Pacific region included interviews with 7,373 respondents from 14 markets who were asked questions about their online shopping habits. The survey and its accompanying reports do not represent MasterCard’s financial performance.

In terms of online shopping and purchase intent, the results show that once again, the gap is closing for online shopping in Asia/ Pacific markets between the “mature” and “emerging” markets. Thailand leads the pack both in terms of online shopping (80%) and likelihood to make an online purchase in the next six months (93%), alongside China.

Overall declines were recorded in India (-14%), Singapore (-10%), and Korea (-17%); although the latter still had high intent to purchase (84%).