Retail in Asia

In Trends

Singapore holds 72-hour online shopping festival

From 2 to 4 February, Singaporean e-shoppers were treated to big discounts in a 72-hour shopping e-commerce festival that also saw companies like Google, DBS, SingPost and SRPING Singapore collaborating with retailers and businesses.

The pre-Chinese New Year online shopping fest brings deals from over 60 brands onto a common platform where shoppers can avail of deals including up to 75 percent off travel deals, up to 70 percent off beauty products.

The festival was also supported by DBS and SingPost. The first 2000 registered shoppers to spend over a total of SGD168 (USD124.8) with their DBS/POSB cards received an additional 15 percent rebate or up to SGD100 (USD74.2) off.

SingPost, on the other hand, offered delivery and returns solutions to brands taking part in the festival.

SingPost also offered online shoppers access to 90 POPStations — or smart locker stations, allowing them to collect, pay or even return their purchases round-the-clock.

Brands powered by SingPost’s end-to-end e-commerce service such as shop.adidas.com.sg offered exclusive online pre-orders for their top-selling collections, while cocomi.com gave away Pandora bracelets for a minimum spend of SGD250 (USD185.7).

“We’re excited to be teaming up with businesses across Singapore to celebrate the best of e-commerce here, and bring great deals from around the web to shoppers in the run up to Chinese New Year,” said Joanna Flint, Country Director, Singapore, Google Asia-Pacific.

According to a study conducted by TNS, 69 percent of Singaporeans research products online before purchasing — this is ahead of the US at 52 percent, Germany at 54 percent and the UK at 62 percent.

Of these Singaporeans shoppers, 45 percent also go on to complete their purchase online, a trend that is on par with other advanced economies including the US at 43 percent and Australia at 46 percent.

Singaporeans are increasingly device-agnostic as well, shopping on their mobile devices in just the same way as they do on desktop. Nearly half of Singapore’s Internet users (49 percent) look for product information on their smartphones weekly, with 12 percent completing purchases on their phones.

This is ahead of such markets as the US (41 percent and 12 percent, respectively), France (22 percent and 3 percent), Germany (23 percent and 8 percent) and Japan (24 percent and 5 percent).

Another study by TNS shows that 41 percent of Singaporeans who have never shopped online, expect to do so in the next 12 months.

The festival is also supported by SPRING Singapore. “We are pleased to facilitate the participation of Singapore retail SMEs in the Great Singapore Online Festival (GOSF) 2015.

“The encouraging response by local retailers signals their commitment to ramp up their own capabilities in alternative modes of shopping, especially for digital-savvy customers. In this era of mobile device-enabled consumers, retailers must offer compelling propositions to engage and create shopping experiences beyond the conventional strategies of brick-and-mortar stores,” said Kee Ai Nah, Group Director, Industry Development Group, SPRING Singapore.