Dec 4, 2013 (Wed): Even though the ecommerce markets in Singapore and Malaysia are relatively small compared to Asian giants like China and Japan, the “Cross-Border eCommerce in Asian Markets: Singapore and Malaysia” report said that Singapore and Malaysia are the ideal testing grounds for merchants who want to expand their business internationally and explore the potential of the Asian market.
The study illustrated that these two smaller countries stand out with respect to the size of the cross-border share of the ecommerce market, offering unique ecommerce propositions which will help merchants to adapt locally and understand the particularities of this rapidly growing ecommerce region.
The report estimated that 55 percent of all ecommerce in Singapore and 40 percent in Malaysia is cross-border, an extremely high percentage compared to cross-border ecommerce figures if compared to Japan (18%) and South Korea (25%). It also reveals that credit cards are the preferred payment method (about 80%) in cross-border transactions and more than half of the products bought overseas are purchased from online stores based in the USA.
“The multicultural, multilingual nature of both societies and their developed ecommerce ecosystem represent a perfect landscape for e-commerce companies with the ambition to expand into Southeast Asia and, in a next phase, to tap into well-established Asian e-commerce markets. Over the last years, ecommerce has been growing rapidly throughout the region and Singapore is turning into a regional ecommerce hub. With more than 60 million people browsing the web, Southeast Asia is a significant market for e-commerce businesses,” said Marrit Teirlinck, researcher in the Financial Study Association (FSA).
“Cross-Border eCommerce in Asian Markets: Singapore and Malaysia” is a study jointly done by FSA and Payvision, an independent Payment Solution Provider specialized in Global Card Processing for the ecommerce market.
