Hong Kong lags behind rivals in eCommerce

Despite Hong Kong being home to the highest internet and smartphone penetration in the Asia-Pacific region, a new survey conducted by global payments company, Visa, found that eCommerce in the SAR lags significantly behind the other 12 markets that were examined.
The online survey, conducted between May and June 2015, interviewed 733 internet users in Hong Kong aged 18 to 55 and found that the city is still in the “evolving” stage in the development of eCommerce. It classified 22 percent of customers as “mature” e-Commerce users, 37 percent as “evolving”, and 35 percent as “emerging” based on the average number of online purchases made per year.
These statistics exist is despite Hong Kong’s reputation in the Asia-Pacific region for high internet and smartphone penetration, at 79 percent and 87 percent, respectively.
The survey also found a strong preference for Hong Kong consumers to use mobile devices (mobile phones or tablets) for browsing and purchasing online, further closing the gap on desktops. Termed “mCommerce,” the growth in mobile commerce for the year 2015 records a 23 percent increase year-on-year. As of 2015, 79 percent of consumers use mobile devices for browsing and 58 percent use them for purchasing.
Of the consumers contacted in the survey, 43 percent recorded purchasing while commuting, whereas the majority of consumers (71 percent) do so  at home. Analyzed by category, the most popular online purchases from Hong Kong consumers are bill payments (68 percent), movies (58 percent) and travel (56 percent).
“We are seeing a high usage and fast growth of mobile commerce [as] people in Hong Kong get more comfortable using their smart devices to research and browse … [and for] making online payments,” said Caroline Ada, Country Manager of Visa Hong Kong and Macau.
“mCommerce should soon overtake traditional eCommerce habits, strengthening this channel of engagement between consumers and retailers,” she added.
The report notes that as online shoppers mature in their behavior, they are expected to add additional categories to their purchasing. For example, shoppers may expand beyond making online payments for travel arrangements to also paying for their movie tickets through a mobile device. Almost half of consumers (48 percent) in Hong Kong have added at least one purchase category in the past 12 months, with 29 percent saying that they have added two, and 19 percent have added three. Staff reporter