Singapore mobile shopping grew 660 per cent in 2011: PayPal

The ‘PayPal Online and Mobile Shopping Insights 2011’ study said the market growth will remain strong, predicting ten-fold growth over the next three years.

It comes as PayPal launched two mobile commerce solutions to make mobile payments more streamlined and urged businesses to adapt to the changing shopping behaviour.

The report showed that mobile shopping accounted for just 4 per cent of all online shopping in 2010, but this grew to 25 per cent in 2011.

Smartphone users indicated a preference to purchase fashion items, airline and movie tickets. But tablet users are more likely purchase higher ticket items, showing a preference for automotive goods and computer hardware, the survey said.

It added that QR codes are gaining popularity among Singapore's smartphone shoppers. Of those who were aware of QR codes, 45 per cent said they had used the technology for an average of eight transactions in 2011.

Rahul Shinghal, director of PayPal Mobile Asia-Pacific, said mobile commerce is one of the fastest growing trends in the retail market, as mobile devices begin to change the way consumers shop.

He said, “The time is right for Singapore’s retail industry to go multichannel by offering mobile-optimised checkout and mobile shopping websites to take advantage of this major change in consumer shopping behavior.”

Meanwhile, PayPal updated its checkout solutions in an attempt to streamline the payment process for consumers.

Its PayPal Mobile Payments Standard allows business websites to detect when a customer is using a smartphone for the payment process and redirect them to a mobile-friendly payment page, even if the host company's website is not optimised for mobile devices.