Emerging markets lead smartphone shopping in Asia-Pacific: MasterCard

The survey was conducted between November and December 2012, through interviews with 7,011 respondents aged 18 to 64, in 14 markets, including Thailand, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, India and the Philippines.

"One of the key drivers behind the huge increase in mobile shopping among consumers in APAC's emerging markets is the growth in smartphone penetration," Porush Singh, MasterCard's senior vice-president of core products, global products and solutions, APMEA, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "Our survey shows that mobile internet penetration has significantly increased in emerging markets such as China (from 91.2 per cent in 2011 to 95.4 per cent in 2012), Vietnam (81.9 per cent to 86.2 per cent) and Indonesia (89.5 per cent to 92.3 per cent)."

China leads the region overall as the market with the most propensity to conduct online shopping (102 index points), followed by New Zealand (87), Australia (85), Singapore (84), and South Korea (82).

Singapore and Hong Kong recorded the biggest increases in online shopping behaviour with both markets registering a nine index point increase in 2012.

The survey revealed a notable increase in smartphone shopping, with US$910.2 on average spent in the past three months. Indonesians top the region with more than half of respondents (54.5 per cent) using their smartphones to shop in the past three months, ahead of China (54.1 per cent) and Thailand (51 per cent).

However, the least likely to shop online via their mobile phones are respondents from New Zealand (18.2 per cent), Australia (18.7 per cent), and the Philippines (21.4 per cent).

Almost half of the respondents (45.7 per cent) said the reason to shop online via smartphone is because of convenience, while 41.4 per cent said it was because they could do it on the go, and 39.7 per cent think the increasing number of apps makes online shopping easier.

Mobile banking apps have the highest awareness-familiarity levels at 45 per cent, followed by in-social-networking-app shopping (34 per cent) and in-game-app shopping (33 per cent), but high technology like mobile NFC had the lowest awareness-familiarity levels, with only 25 per cent of the respondents being aware of or familiar with the technology.

Security remains a major concern of online shopping. More than one in three respondents across Asia-Pacific felt buying locally was safer than buying from foreign websites, as they were afraid of scams and perceived a possible risk of information being compromised.

The results also show the most popular category is coupons and deal sites, with 40 per cent of respondents interested in the category. These types of sites are particularly strong in China (70 per cent), Hong Kong (54 per cent), Vietnam (51 per cent), South Korea (50 per cent), and Singapore (47 per cent).

Music downloads come in the second place with 36 per cent of consumers being interested, while fashion-related items attract 35 per cent of respondents, mostly from China (54 per cent), Thailand (43 per cent), South Korea (43 per cent), New Zealand (40 per cent), and Australia (40 per cent).

However, the current online shopping experience isn't ideal, Shin Hasegawa, director and assistant CMO of Rakuten, told Campaign Asia-Pacific at this year's World Retail Congress Asia-Pacific, which kicked off today in Singapore.

"User experience of online shopping is different from PC, and is also location-based, which requires further development and optimisation," Hasegawa said.

"In terms of performing marketing, the approach of brands should be different, as searching and customisation are critical, and when comes to branding, the name of the game is consistency of the brand's message, tone and manner," he added.

"In terms of marketing strategies, brands will certainly have to shift their focus away from just online marketing and take advantage of the intel and capabilities mobile technology offers. This means maximising the use of real-time geographic information and consumer data to engage with the consumer on-the-go at key decision points," MasterCard's Singh concluded.