Smartphone shopping sweeps across Asia
Online shopping in Asia Pacific is shifting from PC to smartphones, a new survey has found.
According to the latest MasterCard Online Shopping Survey, the region has seen a notable increase in smartphone shopping, with Indonesians (54.5% of respondents making an online purchase in the past three months) most likely to use their mobiles or tablets to make online purchases. Shoppers from China were second (54.1%) and Thailand third (51%).
About 40% of online shoppers in Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore – which also have high internet-enabled mobile users – made a purchase using their mobile or tablet. The least likely to shop online via their smartphones are users in New Zealand (18.2%), Australia (18.7%) and the Philippines (21.4%).
“The MasterCard survey reflects the changing behaviours of shoppers in the region, with more consumers opting to purchase goods online and increasingly using their smartphones to do it. With the exception of a few markets, online shoppers are becoming more confident about using their phones to shop and I’d expect that trend to continue as more sophisticated technologies come onto the market and more products are offered online,” said Porush Singh, MasterCard’s senior vice president of core products, global products & solutions for Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa.
China leads the overall online shopping league, ahead of New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and South Korea.