“Singapore B2C E-Commerce Market 2019” is a new report published by a leading secondary market research firm yStats.com, based in Hamburg, Germany. The report covers the current online trends in Singapore and includes a prediction of further sales growth through 2025. M-Commerce and cross-border shopping are the top trends and Singaporean online shoppers are keen on trying out different shopping channels like in-app and social commerce.
Singaporeans eagerly engage in online shopping activities
In 2018, Singapore was ranked as Southeast Asia’s fifth largest B2C E-Commerce market. Multiple sources predict B2C E-Commerce sales in Singapore to experience annual double-digit growth through 2025. Even though Singapore has a smaller population size than its neighbors, the country boasts an advanced infrastructure and wealthy consumers who easily adopt online shopping activities. Over 8 in 10 adult Internet users in Singapore made purchases online, according to a 2018 survey referenced in the yStats.com report. In addition, other surveys reveal that they engage in these activities frequently.
M-Commerce and cross-border shopping shape Singaporean E-Commerce
Among the top E-Commerce trends of Singaporean online retail market are the high penetration rates of M-Commerce and cross-border online shopping. Driven by a high mobile Internet penetration, close to three-quarters of the Internet traffic in 2018 was streamed from mobile devices. However, computer still dominated the online shopping experience in the country in 2018. In-app purchases and social media shopping are also gaining traction in Singapore. Consumers not only browse products and trends on social media, they also buy certain product categories via this channel. As for cross-border shopping, Singapore had one of the highest cross-border online shopper penetration rates in all of Asia in 2018.
The E-Commerce market in Singapore is mainly controlled by local platforms
The E-Commerce market in Singapore is served by many merchants, making it difficult for new players to enter the market. Local platform Qoo10, owned by Giosis Pte. Ltd., was the leading and the most visited online shopping platform in the country in 2018. By launching a new marketplace QuuBe, the market leader reduced barriers for smaller outlets to enter the E-Commerce market. The platform is built on blockchain technology, with revenues generated solely from advertising, which enables merchants to list products for free. Another regional leader, Singaporean-based Lazada was the second most visited E-Commerce platform and celebrated the leading position as a mobile shopping app. Other popular online shopping websites in Q1 2019 were Singaporean-based Shopee, StrawberryNet, EZBuy, Zalora and eBay. International giant Amazon held a low double-digit market share of online sales in the country.
