Singaporeans spent $4b on shopping abroad

SINGAPORE, Sept 3 — More Singaporeans are spending their consumer dollars abroad, a study on spending habits has found.

The telephone survey of 5,000 Singaporeans was commissioned by enterprise development agency Spring Singapore last year. Its results were revealed to retail chiefs at the Singapore Retail Industry Conference yesterday.

Last year, the most popular shopping destination was Malaysia, followed by China, then Thailand. Singaporeans spent a total of $1.72 billion (RM4.1 billion) in those three countries, buying mainly apparel, personal accessories and confectionery.

But distance did not deter the bargain hunters. Singaporeans' per capita spending in the United States more than doubled from $644 in 2006 to $1,569 last year due to the weaker US dollar.

In total, Singaporeans splashed out $4.15 billion on shopping in the following 10 markets last year: Malaysia, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan, India, Japan and the US.

Pull factors for shopping away from home, the study found, included better customer service as well as cheaper, trendier and more diverse merchandise.

Singapore Retailers Association president Jannie Tay also said many Singaporeans headed abroad in the months after April 1 last year, when the goods and services tax (GST) hike to 7 per cent kicked in - and probably in many cases to Hong Kong, where there is no sales tax.

Dr Tay, however, denied that competition from overseas markets constituted a threat to the local retail industry. 'Our greatest challenge is not the customers, as long as they are spending.'

Mrs Kee Ai Nah, Spring Singapore's director of retail, furniture, textile and apparel, agreed: 'While the airlines are taking people out, they are also bringing people in. If you compare the retail dollars spent by tourists here and the retail dollars spent by Singaporeans overseas, it is about the same.' — The Straits Times