iPrice Group: How Did COVID-19 Change Online Shopping Behaviour in Southeast Asia?

The global pandemic and lockdown accelerated e-commerce growth and digitalization everywhere, including Southeast Asia. In this report, iPrice uncovered other pandemic-driven changes in online shopping behavior in 2020; such as consumers’ spending patterns, website visits, and use of mobile applications. 

E-Commerce website visits increased overall in 2020, but dropped for certain product categories

During the pandemic, mobility restrictions brought more consumers to online stores instead of physical retail stores. The traffic of online shopping platforms saw a significant rise across all countries year over year. Singapore saw the highest surge in the region of 35%, followed by the Philippines (21%), Vietnam (19%), Malaysia (17%), Thailand (15%), and Indonesia (6%).

Similarly, online department stores also saw a 52% increase in visits from Q1 to Q4 2020. However, demand for non-essential items like fashion or cosmetics seemed to have dropped; websites offering cosmetics products experienced a 35% drop in traffic, whereas fashion and electronics websites both saw a 14% drop.  

SEA’s average basket size increased by 19% in 2020

Despite the decrease of certain sites’ web traffic at the end of 2020, the average spending per order (aka basket size) for electronics, fashions, sports, and outdoor products staggeringly increased. 

Asian shoppers spent $32 on average per order, which is 19% higher than their average basket size in 2019. Singapore and Malaysia are countries that have the biggest basket size in 2021, amounting to $61 and $41 respectively. 

For further analysis and insights on why Southeast Asia consumers are installing or uninstalling shopping applications, read the full article on iPrice here! 

About iPrice Group

iPrice Group is a meta-search website operating in seven countries across Southeast Asia namely; Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.

Currently, iPrice compares and catalogs more than 6 billion and receives about 20 million monthly visits across the region. iPrice currently operates three business lines: price comparison for electronics and health & beauty; product discovery for fashion and home & living; and coupons across all verticals.

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