Singapore shoppers lag region in ‘savvy’ e-commerce habits

Only 9% of Singaporeans met the report’s “Savvy Shopper” benchmark.

Singapore recorded the smallest share of “Savvy Shoppers” in a regional report by e-commerce intelligence firm Cube, produced in partnership with Lazada.

The classification covered shoppers who scored above the regional median in four areas: product verification, value optimisation, confidence and purchase protection, and digital fluency.

The findings were based on a survey of 6,000 online shoppers across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Across the region, Savvy Shoppers represented 24% of respondents but accounted for an estimated 29% of marketplace spending. They reported spending 31% more per month than other shoppers and were 1.4 times more likely to fall within the report’s highest spending category.

Cube estimated that the additional spending associated with this group amounted to US$11.5b in 2026, equivalent to about 7% of Southeast Asia’s total marketplace spending.

Singapore had the smallest Savvy Shopper cohort, at 9%, compared with 36% in the Philippines, 28% in Indonesia and 25% in Vietnam.

Savvy Shoppers in Singapore reported spending 13% more each month than other Singapore respondents, suggesting that the group’s smaller size did not prevent it from contributing disproportionately to marketplace activity.

The report suggested that Singapore’s smaller cohort could be partly linked to lower exposure to marketplace ecosystems. About 48% of Singapore shoppers used marketplaces at least once a week, compared with 66% across the other five markets.

Marketplaces also accounted for 65% of Singapore respondents’ online purchases, below the 72% recorded elsewhere in the region.

Amongst Singapore shoppers who were one dimension short of the Savvy benchmark, purchase protection was the most common gap. This includes checking return policies, understanding platform safeguards and knowing how to escalate disputes.

The finding points to an opportunity for Singapore marketplaces and retailers to strengthen consumer awareness around returns, refunds and dispute resolution.

Across the region, another 18% of respondents met the benchmark in three of the four dimensions, which Cube identified as the nearest-term opportunity for deeper e-commerce participation.

Trust remained a central consideration. About 90% of respondents frequently checked product reviews and ratings, 80% specifically examined negative reviews and 70% researched products outside the marketplace.

Digital fluency produced the widest behavioral difference between Savvy and other shoppers. Savvy Shoppers were substantially more likely to use search engines, social platforms, online communities and artificial intelligence tools to discover and evaluate products.

For Singapore, the findings suggest that future marketplace growth may depend less on bringing consumers online and more on increasing shopping frequency and confidence among existing users.

Cube expects Southeast Asian e-commerce sales to approach US$400b by 2031. It said future growth would increasingly depend on helping existing consumers shop more frequently and confidently rather than simply bringing new users online.