E-shopping on smartphones rise for the Lunar New Year
Shopping is big during the annual Lunar New Year festival. It is the time when Chinese throw out their old stuff and buy new ones from furniture and household goods to clothes and jewellery. What’s new in 2017 is that more consumers are making larger purchases using their smarphones even for buying big ticket items like jewellery.
Research trends from marketing tech firm Criteo shows that consumers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan buy more using mobile applications. Between April and June last year, their average order value (AOV) on mobile applications was 27 percent higher than those purchases made on desktops. Criteo believes this trend will continue this year.
Retailers will also see a high web influence on offline sales, it said. Shoppers in these three countries are “showrooming”, that is, checking prices while looking at items in a physical store. In Singapore, Criteo research shows that 62 percent of local shoppers are browsing similar products online and comparing prices to ensure they get the best deals. About 69 per cent of these consumers finally buy the same product or service online.
Smartphone penetration in these three countries are among the highest in Asia so it is not unexpected that consumers will use them for online purchases. According to Singapore government data, smartphone penetration in the Republic is nearly 150%. In Hong Hong, it is 87% according to public sector agency InvestHK and in Taiwan, it is 73.4% according to digital magazine eMarketer. It also helps that these three countries have fast broadband speeds.
Criteo’s Asia-Pacific executive managing director Yvonne Chang, said: “Luxury clothing, jewellery and furniture are some of the big-ticket purchases consumers are now starting to make online before and during Lunar New Year.”
As consumers increasingly use their mobile devices for e-commerce, she stressed that security, easy navigation and a shorter checkout process on mobile sites and applications will encourage consumers to complete more big-ticket shopping journeys.
Criteo’s research was based on an analysis of 65 million online transactions in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan before, during and after Lunar New Year in 2016. Its research showed that e-commerce sales spiked by 188 per cent 11 days before the first day of the festival last year. Mobile devices played a key role in online purchases during this festival. About 32 per cent of all e-transactions were undertaken on a mobile device. Online purchases of apparel and jewellery rose by 57% and 62% respectively.
