How are eShopping trends shaping the market?

These days, we see high growth with the usage of the mobile internet in SouthEast Asia. Besides your wallet and your keys, your mobile is probably the third personal item always by your side.  In fact in a global survey conducted by OnDevice Research, it described how Asian consumers, more often than other consumers, would first go to their phones to research or purchase goods and services.  To save time and get things done more efficiently in today's world, your mobile has become an ancillary channel for eShop browsing to help source, service and support your purchase decisions.

In fact, from a PayPal research done Jan-Feb 2011, there were several interesting findings:

1. Singapore online commerce market reached S$1.1 billion in 2010, and will grow to S$4.4 billion in 2015.
2. 1.2 million Singaporean online shoppers (above the age of 18 years old) had an average spend per head of S$1,492 over the past year.
3. 84% of Singaporeans used their mobile device to either research or purchase goods.
4. Mobile eShopping is in its infancy stage comprising 4% of online shopping market.
5. Over 364 thousand Singaporean online shoppers spent S$43 million ($$119/user) on their mobile devices last year, approximately 4% of the online shopping market
6. 40% (~S$420 million) of online purchases were domestic.

Stores in Singapore could well look into putting together a multi-channel approach to in their sales and marketing.  From a merchandising perspective, the I Love Deals in-app survey infographic below show that the 3 top products consumers expressed interest in online deals were clothing, shoes and consumer electronics.

With online and mobile eShopping primed to take off in Asia and Singapore,

• How will sales and marketing change with eCoupons, vouchers?  What are the ancillary revenue opportunities?
• How will apps, the Web, TV impact marketing, promotions and distribution channels for eShopping?  How will these ancillary channels evolve?
• With daily deals fatigue, what are the new models in eShopping?  Is gamification trending as an engagement tactic?  Is yield management a new model to look into?

I look forward to engage into further discussions on the above.

til later,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

References:
1. The Stats and Facts of Online Shopping in Singapore
2. Mobile commerce on growth path in Asia Pacific
3. PayPal Study Shows Singaporeans Find Value in Shopping on Local Websites