In Singapore, online shopping will soon be mostly mobile

By next year, more than half of Singapore’s online shoppers will be making purchases on their phones and iPads – four years ahead of the global average.

In 2019, 52 percent of online shoppers in Singapore will be on mobile devices, shows data from a new Worldpay report.

Photo credit: Rob Hampson / Unsplash

“With a penchant for shopping and some of the highest rates of smartphone penetration in the world, it’s no surprise that Singapore is a frontrunner in the global transition to mobile commerce,” says Worldpay’s Phil Pomford. “As Singapore’s intrepid and imaginative consumers continue to spark the next wave of shopping innovation, we will no doubt see more and more creative merchants tailor their offerings to address the demands of mobile shoppers.”

Between now and 2023, Singapore’s ecommerce spending will rise from US$5.6 billion to US$7.4 billion.

Ditch the purses and wallets

More and more Singaporeans will also be paying for things in malls using their phones as mobile wallet apps gain traction.

In-store phone payments in the city-state are set to rise from US$122 billion to US$149 billion in 2022, according to Worldpay.

GrabPay and Nets are among Singapore’s top wallet apps, as seen at this hawker center:

GrabPay sticker in Singapore / Photo credit: Grab

Across Asia, cash is set to plummet from 30 percent of in-store payments to 14 percent by 2022, while phone payments will rocket from 27 to 42 percent:

Chart: WorldPay

One proviso there: trend leader China is massively distorting those numbers – US$15 trillion was spent via phones there in 2017. That hides the fact much of the continent is lagging behind this global shift away from cash.