Why The APAC Region Is Mobile Shopping Hotbed

The Asia-Pacific region is turning out to be marked by strong mobile usage, especially in paying bills over smartphones and other devices, leaving the desktop behind.

The Visa 2015 Regional eCommerce Monitor Survey, as ZDNet reported Thursday (Oct. 1), found that there has been a 22 percent increase in mobile shopping across the region over the past year. Defined by country, the highest growth rates, at 36 percent, 34 percent and 28 percent, came from Indonesia, China and Taiwan, respectively.

In terms of methodology, the Visa study took the pulse of 11,670 respondents living and mobile shopping across 13 markets, from Singapore to Malaysia to India.

Among the findings: Thai consumers were split in their predisposition to buy items on mobile or desktop. And that “gap” narrowed in other nations surveyed.

In narrowing down just what people liked to buy, with 27 percent of the spending each, were movies, fashion and bill payments.

[bctt tweet=”In narrowing down just what people liked to buy, with 27 percent of the spending each, were movies, fashion and bill payments.”]

Conor Lynch, Visa’s regional eCommerce director, told ZDNet that “as consumers get more comfortable using their smart devices to research, browse and purchase, mCommerce should soon overtake traditional eCommerce habits, strengthening this channel of engagement between consumers and retailers.”

Cross-border has been mentioned as a booming industry elsewhere, and the Visa survey shows some traction here, with Singapore online buyers displaying a significant penetration rate as 77 percent of shoppers said they had engaged in cross-border eCommerce. Conversely, 81 percent of Japanese shoppers bought online domestically, trailed by 61 percent in Taiwan and 57 percent in Vietnam.

Among the key determinants as to what people bought from overseas: 68 percent pointed to price, with another 60 percent looking at actual access to goods. Roughly 40 percent of those surveyed said they would use delivery and payment processes as a determining factor.

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.