Singapore’s e-commerce market to surpass $24 billion in 2028

The Singapore e-commerce market is growing at a fast pace and is expected to register a strong compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9% between 2024 and 2028 to reach SGD33.3 billion ($24.8 billion) in 2028, forecasts GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s E-Commerce Analytics reveals that Singapore e-commerce market has been on growth trajectory registering a CAGR of 25.3% between 2020 and 2023 to reach SGD21.2 billion ($15.8 billion) in 2023. This upward trend is expected to continue in 2024, with an estimated 11.7% growth in e-commerce sales.

Shivani Gupta, Senior Banking and Payments Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Singapore’s e-commerce market is well developed, supported by the city-state’s robust technology infrastructure which ensures the availability of high-speed internet, as well as a strong supply of tech-savvy customers. Online shopping events, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, have also supported the growth of ecommerce.”

Singaporean consumers are showing a growing preference for online shopping, even for everyday items. To capitalize on this trend, British online food delivery company Deliveroo launched “Deliveroo Shopping” in November 2024. This feature within the Deliveroo app enables users to conveniently order non-food items such as beauty & personal care, baby care, consumer electronics, florists, and health & pharmacy items, thereby catering to consumers’ wider range of everyday needs. To encourage usage, Deliveroo is offering promotional benefits such as $1 delivery fee and discounts.

Among the payment methods, payment cards are the most preferred due to the value-added benefits, including interest free instalment payment options, reward programs, cashback, and discounts associated with these cards. Alternative payment tools are also increasingly being preferred for e-commerce payments with some of the popular brands being Apple Pay, PayPal, and Google Pay.

The rising popularity of buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions is also contributing to the overall e-commerce payments with some of the prominent BNPL brands in Singapore being Hoolah and Atome. In a bid to boost the usage, Atome partnered with e-commerce giant Amazon in May 2023 to offer the latter’s customers with its zero interest, pay-in-three, option at checkout.

Gupta concludes: “Singapore’s e-commerce market is poised for rapid expansion in the coming few years. This can be attributed to the growing consumer preference for online channels, improving payment infrastructure, proliferation of alternative payment solutions and growing popularity of innovative online shopping methods. The Singapore e-commerce market is expected to register growth rate of 11.7% in 2024 to reach SGD23.7 billion ($17.6 billion).”