Ka-ching!: Singaporeans’ online spending up by a whopping 236%

And guess which were the top three largest online shopping categories during the Great Singapore Sale?

The top 3 largest online shopping categories for PayPal users in Singapore during this period were “Fashion and Accessories” which grew by 156% year on year, “Computers and Electronics” which grew by 536% year on year, and “Travel” which grew by 922% year on year.

Amount spent online by Singaporeans with PayPal merchants grew 236% during GSS. PayPal revealed that its Singapore users significantly increased their online shopping with local merchants by a massive 236% during this year’s GSS (May 27- July 24, 2011) than they did during the same period in last year’s GSS (May 28-July 25, 2010).

Singaporeans were clearly looking forward to the great online deals at GSS this year as the average daily transaction volume of Singapore PayPal users buying from local merchants grew by 29% during the GSS period (May 27-July 24, 2011) compared to the pre-GSS period (Jan 1-May 26, 2011).

With the average daily transaction count increasing by 53%, PayPal users in Singapore snapped up many online deals and enjoyed deep discounts during the GSS period. The top 3 largest online shopping categories for PayPal users in Singapore during this period were “Fashion and Accessories” which grew by 156% year on year, “Computers and Electronics” which grew by 536% year on year, and “Travel” which grew by 922% year on year. The high growth rates for PayPal’s domestic online sales show that Singaporeans are shopping more from local merchants than overseas ones.

“Simply amazing! The online results for this year’s Great Singapore Sale period show that there are no limits for Singaporean shopaholics as they are looking for great deals in stores and on the Web all the time. Fashion, electronics and travel are the top three online shopping categories and the greater variety of items being sold online, especially with the explosive growth of daily deal sites, has contributed to the online shopping boom,” said Elias Ghanem, Managing Director and General Manager of PayPal Southeast Asia and India.

Elias continued, “No doubt about it, Singaporeans are shopping-crazy about daily deal sites as they accounted for 6 out of the top 10 PayPal merchants with the fastest growth during the GSS period.

According to a recent PayPal study, the online shopping market in Singapore reached S$1.1 billion with 1.2 million online shoppers, above the age of 18, in 2010, the first time that online spending has broken through the billion dollar mark. The great news for local retailers is that a significant portion of online retail sales are domestic purchases as online shoppers spent nearly 40%, or approximately S$420 million, on local websites last year. With the online shopping market in Singapore expected to grow 32% annually to reach S$4.4 billion in 2015, traditional retailers should quickly adopt a multi-channel sales approach to capitalize on the high growth of online commerce.