China forecast to lead APAC in online spending

China will lead the Asia-Pacific region in online spending this holiday season with $150 billion in sales forecast, new research from Adobe Digital Index reveals.

China’s booming economy has led to the highest anticipated online spend in the region (55 percent), with nearly half of the country’s consumers surveyed (49 percent) predicting an increase in their online spend for the period.

The average Chinese Internet user is predicted to spend a total of $210 online during November and December, driving one-fifth of total online sales for the year.

Adobe’s global Online Shopping Prediction is based on an analysis of 55 million product SKUs and aggregated and anonymous data of more than one trillion retail websites over the last seven years. The holiday season represents 20 percent of worldwide online spending – with Austria and the US at the top of the list.

Across the rest of APAC, consumer spend is expected to remain steady year-on-year with 14 percent and 16 percent of Australians and Singaporeans respectively, anticipating they will increase their total spend this holiday season.

Japan is expected to see the second highest online spend in the region with $37 billion in online sales (a 5 percent year-on-year growth) predicted, followed by Australia at $7 billion.

The survey found that consumers in APAC are not only shopping online more, they are also becoming increasingly efficient, with 20 percent or more in each country surveyed saying they expect to spend less time holiday shopping this year compared to last – a saving that could give them more time to spend with their families and friends.

“Holiday shopping is a huge investment and consumers get more sophisticated every year with their online and mobile shopping in order to secure the most popular gifts at the best prices,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal research analyst, Adobe Digital Index.

Meanwhile, Gaffney said Southeast Asia is expected to lead the charge in mobile shopping with 21 percent of e-commerce purchases to be transacted via smartphones and around 10 percent via tablets.

Japanese shoppers won’t be too far behind, with 24 percent of e-commerce purchases predicted to be made via smartphones and 6% via tablets.

Consumers are also finding online shopping less stressful than heading to the stores. In Australia, almost one-in-five (19 percent) consumers rated offline shopping as extremely stressful, compared to only 6 percent who said the same about online shopping. China is the only country in the region where online and offline shopping are seen as equally stressful.