ANZ markets outpaced in mobile shopping

Growth in online shopping in Australia and New Zealand is much slower compared to some emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region, according to the recent Mastercard Mobile Shopping Survey.

Emerging markets in Asia Pacific have recorded high year-on-year growth in mobile shopping, outpacing their more developed counterparts. India, at 75 per cent, has retained its crown as the region’s top mobile shoppers for the second consecutive year; China, at 71.4 per cent, remains a close second.

The Philippines (53.5 per cent) and Malaysia (55.6 per cent) have the highest year-on-year growth in mobile shopping, recording increases of 12.6 per cent and 10.1 per cent respectively.

While the Philippines, Malaysia, China and India have recorded growth in mobile spending, the more advanced markets like Japan (31 per cent), Australia (26 per cent), and New Zealand (26 per cent) are keeping their mobile purse strings tight, the study showed.

The study also revealed Asia Pacific’s penchant for mobile shopping has also fueled a steady increase in digital wallet adoption, with more than one in five consumers (22.3 per cent) using such payment methods. The region’s consumers are also embracing QR code payments. Over one in ten consumers use QR code payments with the most avid users hailing from China (42.6 per cent) by a wide margin.

“Consumers in many of Asia Pacific’s emerging markets are mobile-first users, having leapfrogged the traditional payment evolution,” said Benjamin Gilbey, senior vice president, Digital Payments and Labs, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “Their governments are making significant efforts to push the development of the e- and m-commerce landscape as well as its supporting infrastructure, which has in part contributed to the growth we’ve seen in the latest survey results.”

Gilbey said today’s consumers have shifted from simply being one-device users to one-app users as they demand more seamless payment experiences.

The Mastercard Mobile Shopping Survey, which was carried out across fourteen markets in Asia Pacific (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand & Vietnam) where total of 8,738 consumers aged 18-64 were polled online, revealed that majority of consumers across the region (53.6 per cent) cite convenience as a key reason for shopping on their mobile devices, particularly those in China (70.9 per cent), Thailand (60.8 per cent) and Taiwan (59.2 per cent). Contrary to the rest of the region, majority of consumers in Malaysia cited the ability to shop on the go as a key reason, as opposed to convenience.

Clothing and fashion accessories (34.9 per cent), personal care and beauty products (21 per cent) and movie tickets (20.2 per cent) are the top purchases made by Asia Pacific’s mobile shoppers, the study showed. This was not the case, however, for mobile shoppers in Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan, whose top purchases include books, CDs and DVDs; toys and gifts; and personal and beauty care products, respectively.

Preferences for in-store shopping continues its steady decline across Asia Pacific, dropping to 45.9 per cent from 48.6 per cent two years ago.

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