Online shopping increasingly popular in the Asia Pacific region

Shopping habits in the Asia Pacific region

According to global market research company GfK’s Future Buy report online shopping continues to surge with 63% of consumers agreeing that their mobile phone is the most important device when it comes to shopping.

In the latest GfK FutureBuy study, 11,000 online interviews were conducted in July 2018 across 11 Asia Pacific markets to understand consumers’ shopping habits and behaviours across 18 product categories ranging from packaged food and beverages and apparel to home appliances and wearables, and beauty and personal care.

Apparel, toys were among the more popular products with more than 50% making online purchases in these categories in the last six months.

The 2018 FutureBuy report also revealed frequency of online purchases in APAC trending upwards from a year ago for majority of the categories tracked, led by the beauty and personal care, toys and baby care categories.

“Online shopping is growing rapidly at a global level as increasing number of consumers are realizing and appreciating the many advantages it offers,” highlighted Karthik Venkatakrishnan, Consumer Insights Lead for APAC at GfK.

“Largely driven by the deepening internet penetration rate across countries, the appeal of purchasing online boils down to lower prices, convenience and the availability of greater options.”

When it comes to their choice of device to use for internet shopping, over a third of APAC consumers said they prefer to shop on smartphones, and this rising trend is seen particularly in China (45%), India (42%) and Indonesia (39%). In Singapore, one in three (33%) agreed with the statement.

However, the FutureBuy study revealed a significant difference in the type of product categories purchased using the different devices.

For instance, while fast moving consumer goods are mainly bought through smartphones, larger items like laptops and appliances tend to be purchased on PCs.

Payment via mobile phones continues to be a popular option with APAC consumers when shopping online with over half (54%) agreeing that the region’s consumers use this mode of payment when doing transactions online.

Meanwhile, across the region, mobile payment usage has also spiked 30 percent over last year, mainly contributed by the millennials.

“Although cash remains king for now, making up 41 percent of all of APAC consumers’ transactions, using cash as a payment method has declined 5 percent compared to a year ago, and we foresee a persistent downtrend in the coming years,” observed Venkatakrishnan.

“On the other hand, the usage of mobile payments and online wallet will continue to pick up over time as consumers’ become increasingly comfortable and confident with this method, and ease up on their concerns towards personal information and security associated with credit cards,” he concluded.

The survey was conducted among the following countries; Australia, China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.