Online grocery shoppers surged 71%

6 in 10 Singaporeans seek grocery deals online.

According to Nielsen Global Survey of Digital’s Influence on Grocery Shopping, online grocery shoppers in the country surged 71 percent over 2010, with almost a quarter (24%) of Singaporeans surveyed claiming they plan to purchase food and beverage products via internet-enabled devices such as computers, mobile phones or tablets within the next three to six months.

Here's more from Nielsen:

Forty-one percent of respondents claimed they have purchased at least one product online in the last month for their household grocery shopping. For respondents who used the Internet for grocery shopping-related activities, half of them buys products online regularly - on a daily or weekly basis.

“Online shopping delivers multiple benefits that shoppers look for, such as convenience, value and choice. Nielsen’s study found that online influencers for consumer packaged goods and products has clearly grown a lot in Singapore in the last two years,” said Joan Koh, Managing Director, Nielsen Singapore and Malaysia. “While online shopping activity for some consumer packaged goods – especially perishable categories where freshness counts - may not be as prevalent as other categories such as travel, entertainment and technology, there are many opportunities for marketers to identify and engage consumers who are embracing digital channels for their grocery shopping needs, and reinforce a positive shopping experience.”

The Nielsen Global Survey of Digital’s Influence on Grocery Shopping, which surveyed more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries, found that 58 percent of Singaporeans look for deals online when they want to buy household groceries, outstripping both the averages for Asia Pacific (39%) and global (43%).

The study also found that one in two consumers in Singapore use the internet for grocery shopping research activities (such as checking prices, reading reviews etc.) or for looking up product information online (46%). Looking for coupons (39%), comparing prices (30%) and reading a grocery retailer’s promotional circular/flyer (26%) are also popular online grocery shopping activities.

For respondents who claimed to have used the Internet for grocery shopping-related activities, 87 percent look for coupons online on a daily or weekly basis, while 85 percent look for deals online on a daily or weekly basis.

“The substantial amount of time Singaporeans spend online looking for deals points to a pressing need for marketers to deploy savvy digital strategies to connect even more effectively with their consumers. In a world where consumers have increasing say on a brand’s perception through social media, ratings and reviews, generating positive advocacy is critical. Marketers need to encourage consumer feedback and provide unique shopping-related experiences that increase engagement and facilitate relationship building via word-of-mouth,” said Koh. “There are several ways to grow positive engagement levels via different shopper marketing tactics such as fine tuning shopper segmentation, customising and delivering authentic messages for each segment.”

According to Nielsen’s survey, more than half (53%) of Singaporean respondents spend at least 25 percent of their total research time for grocery shopping-related activities on a connected device such as mobile phone. Twenty-four percent indicated spending at least half their research time on the Internet. 

For those respondents who used the Internet for grocery shopping-related activities, more than four in five respondents indicated that they use the Internet daily or weekly to conduct research (81%), read a grocery retailer’s flyer online (69%), compare prices for a grocery product online (70%) or look up product information online (75%).