Asia-Pacific consumers are increasingly likely to make online purchases and bill payments through their mobile phones or tablets rather than their desktops, research shows.
Visa’s 2015 regional eCommerce monitor survey, which polled 11,760 respondents from 13 markets in Asia Pacific, found a 22% increase over 2014 in number of respondents shopping via their mobile devices across the region.
Respondents from Indonesia (36%), China (34%) and Taiwan (28%) reported the greatest growth in mCommerce during the year.
The survey was conducted in May and June 2015 by ORC International Singapore, and polled consumers aged 15 to 55 years. Markets covered include Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Inodnesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
According to the survey, the rising popularity of mCommerce among Asia Pacific consumers is narrowing the gap with traditional eCommerce channels such as laptops or desktop computers across the region. In Thailand, consumers are as likely to purchase using their mobile devices as through desktops, while the mCommerce-eCommerce gap in countries such as China (8%), Korea (9%) and Indonesia (9%) is decreasing.
The survey found that consumers in Asia Pacific choose travel, bill payments and movies as top categories for eCommerce and mCommerce.
The survey also revealed a trend in consumers tending toward cross-border online shopping. Consumers from Singapore (77%), Australia and Hong Kong (75%) and New Zealand (74%) are most likely to make online purchases from retailers overseas, well above the regional average of 55%.
Consumers from Japan (81%), Taiwan (61%) and Vietnam (57%), on the other hand, are most likely to shop at domestic e-stores.
When shopping online with an overseas retailer, price (68%), access to products (6%), paying and delivery processes (40 %) and product reputation (29%) were shown to be key motivations for Asia Pacific consumers.
Source: http://www.telecomasia.net/content/mobile-commerce-gaining-ground-apac