Singapore Online Shoppers Rank Lowest For Savvy Buying In Southeast Asia

Asian Business Review's coverage of a Cube-Lazada study puts Singapore at the bottom of six Southeast Asian markets for online shopping savvy, with only 9% of shoppers clearing the report's regional median across verification, value optimisation, confidence and protection, and digital fluency.

Another group sits close to the threshold.

In Singapore, 10% miss the savvy mark by just one of the measured dimensions, compared with a regional level of 18%.

The biggest gap for those almost-qualified buyers is protection, which accounts for 35% of the shortfall; the next gaps are value optimisation and digital fluency at 23% each, followed by verification at 20%.

Those scores matter because the study links savvy behaviour to stronger paid protection and discount behaviour.

Some 37% of savvy shoppers would pay for better purchase protection, almost double the 20% share among general shoppers.

Discounts show a smaller but still clear split, with 34% of savvy shoppers prepared to spend more to unlock them, compared with 26% for the wider shopper base.

Marketplace habits help explain why Singapore trails its neighbours.

Weekly marketplace buying reaches 48% in Singapore but 66% across the other Southeast Asian markets in the study.

The same pattern shows up in shopping mix, where marketplaces make up 65% of Singapore online purchases and 72% elsewhere in the region.

The resulting spending gap is relatively limited.

Savvy shoppers generate 11% of Singapore e-commerce expenditure, and their monthly spend is 13% above the general shopper level, leaving an estimated gap of about $127m, or US$100m.

Younger shoppers show the strongest tilt toward paid protection and social commerce, with Gen Z ahead of Gen X at 21% versus 15% on protection and 43% versus 26% on social commerce use.