COVID-19 reshapes shopping habits in Southeast Asia | WARC | The Feed

COVID-19 reshapes shopping habits in Southeast Asia

The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged many consumers in Southeast Asia to adopt new shopping habits, from ecommerce to making phone orders, a study by payments company Visa has found.

Why it matters

The widespread health anxiety that greeted the onset and spread of COVID-19 encouraged many people to try different ways of buying goods. Such habits may remain in place if they are more convenient for shoppers, and as the pandemic continues to be part of everyday life.

A majority of shoppers try new things

• According to the study, 55% of Southeast Asian consumers tried shopping via websites or apps for the first time as a result of the COVID crisis.
• Indonesia posted the highest score on this metric (72%), with Vietnam (66%) and Thailand (65%) coming next.
• Forty-two percent of shoppers in Southeast Asia also made their first phone orders from nearby stores, with Vietnam (57%) and Thailand (54%) posting the strongest totals here.

Takeaways

• Respondents in Thailand (89%) led the charts for the likelihood of using digital payments, followed by Vietnam (83%), Malaysia (78%) and the Philippines (also 78%).
• This insight was supported by the fact that 86% of consumers in Thailand thought digital payments were safer than cash, beating Vietnam (80%).
• The Philippines and Indonesia (79%) were close behind, trailed slightly by Malaysia (75%).

Sourced from The Nation Thailand