In Singapore, Social Commerce Follows Hot on the Heels of E-Commerce – Study

E-commerce reigns supreme among Southeast Asian shoppers – for now – but social commerce, or shopping through social media platforms, comes hot on its heels.

Did you do most of your shopping online throughout lockdown, endlessly scrolling through e-commerce platforms and adding items to your cart? Well, you aren’t alone. The annual Southeast Asia Social Commerce Report of artificial intelligence solutions company iKala, the latest released last Oct. 12, 2021, has shown that consumers were not just buying more on social media, but also spending more on each order.

The study is based on a survey involving 1,600 social shoppers and over 23, 600 iKala business customers (social sellers) from Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore, conducted in the first two quarters of 2021. The four countries were chosen for the study because these are among the most avid social media users globally.

As per the report, social commerce doesn't appear to be waning in Southeast Asia despite COVID-19 restrictions easing in some parts of it, but it’s yet to be the king of commerce.

In Numbers: Social Shopping Insights Among Singaporeans

Singaporeans sure love their online shopping. Majority of those surveyed favored e-commerce (90%) and social media platforms (73%) over retail websites, deals and coupon websites, and traditional stores, and it's mainly because of social shopping’s ease and convenience (71%) and price-friendliness (70%).

Forty-three percent of the Singaporeans also reported that they shop at least one to two times a month using social networks, while some (24%) reported doing so less than once a month and three to five times a month (21%).

It was likewise found that Singaporeans mostly turn to reviews and ratings online (76%) before making purchases on social media, followed by listening to the opinions of friends or family (52%).

What do Singaporeans mostly purchase from social media? Clothes, apparel, and accessories emerged as the top category (70%), followed by health and beauty (55%), and electronics and appliances (49%).

As convenient social shopping may be, however, it isn't all sunshine and roses. Social commerce possesses downsides too, with some (37%) Singaporeans citing expensive shipping costs as what dissatisfies them about social shopping, followed by the lack of return and exchange policies (33%), and absence of customer service (28%).

Do you prefer to pay by credit card? Debit card? Digital wallet? Or cash on delivery? The report also showed, interestingly, the differences among shoppers from each country when their payment preferences are concerned, with Filipino and Thai shoppers preferring cash on delivery, while Singaporean and Malaysian shoppers relied mostly on credit cards and digital wallets.

Singaporeans' preference for credit cards and digital wallets are a palpable sign of its efforts to be Asia's fintech hub, such as recently setting up unmanned and cashless payment systems around the city-state as one way to encourage locals to ditch the cash and go digital.

But even more, the insights from the report show that while Singaporeans may be conservative when it comes to spending by going for price-friendly options, they are also fast adapting to the necessary changes brought on by digitalisation not just in Singapore, but the world over.