Online consumers are on the rise, but spending has dropped

The majority of consumers use online shopping to buy daily necessities, clothes and footwear.

The share of persons aged 15 and over who used online purchasing services rose to 43.1% in 2020, up from 35.8% in 2018, the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) said.

Of this, 83.5% of the respondents largely accessed online stores for daily necessities, clothes and footwear. The second most popular purchases were for food and beverages.

The Thematic Household Survey, however, found the median amount spent in purchasing goods and services online dropped to $2,000 in 2020 against $4,000 in 2018.

The significant dropped was attributed to the considerable decline in the purchases related to travel arrangement and online ticket reservations. In 2020, 6.7% and 5.4% of consumers availed said services, respectively.

This plunged from 47.3% in travel arrangement and 18.5% in reservation in 2018. The C&SD said this is “probably due to the impact of the COVID-19.”

The pandemic has led to territories to close down their borders and place strict social distancing measures to prevent spread of the COVID-19.

Mobile payment users also now constituted nearly 50% of persons aged 15 and over. Amongst these, 77.9% used e-payment services for online shopping whilst 76.2% for in-store payment.

The same survey revealed that 93.9% of households now had internet access at home. Of this, 99.7% used the internet through their smartphones, and only 80.2% used their personal computer.

Internet users also increased in 2020 to 92.4%, up from 90.5% in 2018. A significant increase was recorded amongst users aged 65 and over to 65.9% from 56.3%.

Moreover, smartphone penetration rose to 92.1% from 89.8% in 2018. Likewise, a substantial increase was observed amongst persons aged 65 and above.