Here's how savvy Singaporeans plan to spend their time saved by shopping online: Survey

Shopping online this festive season saves 45 hours of time.

With the ease, convenience and choice of shopping online, savvy Singaporeans plan to skip the long queues at shopping malls this festive season and instead click to shop at home or on-the-go. According to a new PayPal survey conducted by GfK to measure the changing ways that consumers shop and pay, Singaporeans plan to do half of all their holiday shopping online this year, saving 45 hours of their precious time. This spells good news for Singaporeans who are avid shoppers but face challenges with 66% of Singaporean workers saying that their workload has increased over the past 6 months[1]. With the time they save by shopping online or on mobile devices, 77% of Singaporeans would spend more time with their family, 69% would use the extra time relaxing through exercising or taking up a hobby, and 55% intend to hang out more often with their friends.

Online and mobile shopping save precious time for Singaporeans

Singaporeans expect to shop online 15 times during the festive season and estimate that they would save an average of 3 hours each time they shop online instead of going to a shopping mall. The top pet peeves for shopping in malls are the battle with crowds (66%) and the long queues at checkout counters (62%), while nearly 50% of the respondents are only willing to wait 5-10 minutes in line at a retail store. With the convenience of online and mobile shopping in their daily lives, time-crunched and overworked Singaporeans can get 45 hours of their lives back for more important things in life such as:

· For parents: sitting down to dinner with their family every night in December or enjoying a weekend stay with the family at Sentosa’s attractions and beaches;

· For ladies: enjoying a relaxing massage/spa or high-tea session every day in December;

· For guys: catching nearly a season’s worth of your favourite English Premier League team’s matches;

· For the young at heart: spending two days to climb up Mount Kinabalu.

“Instead of shopping at overcrowded retail malls and battling carpark lines or MRT traffic, savvier and smarter Singaporean consumers are choosing to shop online and on mobile devices to simplify one of the craziest shopping seasons of the year. Besides saving money, Singaporean shoppers can use online and mobile shopping to get back 45 hours of their precious time for what the holiday season is supposed to be about - spending more time with family and friends, relaxing and celebrating the end of a great year,” said Klas Hesselman, Head of Marketing, Southeast Asia & India, PayPal.

Mobile and social commerce leading the way this holiday season

2012 continues to be the year for mobile commerce as more and more Singaporeans turn to their mobile devices to shop on-the-go. According to the PayPal survey, nearly two-thirds of Singaporean shoppers expect to shop three or more times a month on their mobile devices this festive season. Smartphones and tablets emerged as the top choice to shop online with during the holiday season by almost half of respondents (43%), followed by the use of laptops (37%) and desktops (20%). The study also showed that mobile apps are still more popular than mobile websites for Singaporean online shoppers as 78% of respondents prefer to use mobile apps to access online retail stores, 49% would like to use location-based mobile shopping apps to find great deals, and 38% want to scan QR codes shown on advertisements and promotions.

In addition, the PayPal survey revealed that user-generated content on social media platforms have a strong influence on what Singaporeans buy during the festive shopping season. For a start, 68% of respondents research online before they shop, and over 70% indicated that reviews – good or bad – would influence their purchase decision. Interestingly, close to half of all festive shoppers (43%) actively search social networks for shopping deals and promotions, while 43% were also likely to redeem offers while browsing social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday effect felt in Singapore, too

The Black Friday to Cyber Monday four-day period is one of the largest shopping long weekends in the U.S. where merchants offer massive discounts as the traditional start of the U.S. holiday shopping season. Savvy Singaporean shoppers know that such sales are no longer exclusive to U.S. consumers and that they can now shop online for the best deals along with the Americans this holiday season.

The PayPal study showed that nearly half (46%) of 1.8 million online shoppers[2] in Singapore plan to shop during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday shopping period, with an average spend of nearly S$100 per shopper over this period. The five most popular shopping categories for Singaporeans during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period are clothing (53%), bags and accessories (49%), shoes (36%), electronic gadgets (35%), and toys and games (32%).