Singaporeans' purchasing decisions heavily influenced by social media

It's all about positive online recommendations.

According to Nielsen, social media is playing an increasing role in influencing Singaporean consumers’ purchasing decisions, especially when it comes to food and travel.

Nielsen’s annual global Social Media Report reveals that more than two thirds of Singaporeans’ choice of restaurant or food and beverage related purchases (68% and 67% respectively) are based on social media websites or online product reviews.

Travel, leisure and entertainment purchases are also heavily influenced by social media, with 67 percent of Singaporeans saying they would likely buy travel related products based on positive recommendations shared online, 66 percent for entertainment related products.

The food, beverage, travel/leisure and entertainment categories were also the most discussed products/services via social networking in Singapore in the past year.

“With the increasing relevance and engagement levels of social media, we are now able to see a direct correlation between positive social media sentiment and actual intent to purchase products and services, especially for those operating in the food and beverage, travel and entertainment sectors,” said Joan Koh, Managing Director, Nielsen Singapore and Malaysia.

“Social media represents a huge opportunity for brands to gain positive favour with consumers and savvy marketers can harness the growing influence of social media to impact business.”

Koh added: “Marketers can tune in to conversations taking place on social platforms to better understand consumers’ wants, needs and demands. Social media can also be used as an integrated real-time platform to test new ideas and product strategies to obtain real-time feedback, which is gradually being used to make corrections to product strategy and marketing campaigns. Marketers need to move fast to ensure they stay one step ahead of the curve and know how to win customers in a larger community by serving and inciting their interests.” 

Interestingly, the categories most likely to be impacted by consumers’ social media habits in Singapore differed from other markets in the Asia Pacific region. The top three categories where  purchase decisions were most influenced by social media websites in Asia Pacific on average  included home electronics (75%), entertainment (74%) and clothing/fashion (74%).