Are parking challenges, crowds and queues set to change the way Malaysians shop?
Payment gateway PayPal and respected consumer research house GfK would argue a seismic change is in the wind when it comes to one of Asia’s most shopping-obsessed communities.
Ease, convenience and choice are drawing more and more Malaysians online where they can skip long queues at shopping malls this festive season, according to a survey for PayPal conducted by GfK to measure the changing ways that consumers shop and pay in Malaysia.
Perhaps ominously for some traditional bricks and mortar retailers – those surveyed said they planned to complete up to half of all their holiday shopping online this year, saving 36 hours of their precious time.
However, given Malaysians’ passion for hitting the stores – shopping is almost a national pastime there – Inside Retail Asia wonders the degree to which the intentions expressed in the survey will translate into changed behaviour when they miss the social interaction of shopping in stores.
The PayPal survey concluded that Malaysians expect to shop online 12 times during the festive season and estimate that they would save an average of three hours each time they shop online instead of going to a shopping mall. Pet peeves with shopping malls are difficulties finding a parking space (67 per cent), long queues at checkout counters (65 per cent), and the battling crowds (50 per cent).
In addition, 40 per cent of the respondents are only willing to wait five to 10 minutes in line at a retail store.
“Instead of shopping at overcrowded retail malls and battling traffic and carpark jams, savvier and smarter Malaysian consumers are choosing to shop online and on mobile devices to simplify one of the craziest shopping seasons of the year,” said Klas Hesselman, head of marketing at Paypal, Southeast Asia and India.
Two out of three Malaysian shoppers expect to shop three or more times a month on their mobile devices this festive season. Smartphones and tablets emerged as the top choice to shop online with during the holiday season by almost half of respondents (47 per cent), followed by the use of laptops (34 per cent) and desktops (18 per cent).
Mobile apps are still more popular than mobile websites with 75 per cent of respondents preferring to use mobile apps to access online retail stores, 54 per cent would like to use location-based mobile shopping apps to find great deals, and 39 per cent want to scan QR codes shown on advertisements and promotions.
User-generated content on social media platforms have a strong influence on what Malaysians buy during the festive shopping season. For a start, 76 per cent of respondents research online before they shop, and over 68 per cent indicated that reviews – good or bad – would influence their purchase decision.
Nearly six out of 10 festive shoppers (57 per cent) actively search social networks for shopping deals and promotions, while almost half (49 per cent) were also likely to redeem offers while browsing social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.
One survey a trend does not make, especially one funded by a company doing all it can to drive consumers to spend online.
But the general tone of the survey’s findings is significant in a market where hitting the mall is as much a social activity as a quest to find provisions for the family.
