Consumers in that region are quite comfortable with using their smartphones to research and buy products.
Hong Kong consumers have made m-commerce into an everyday regular activity. When they want to shop for something online, it’s entirely commonplace to use a smartphone for the task. These trends were shared through the MasterCard Online Shopping Survey.
Over 2 in every 5 Hong Kong residents had made a purchase over a mobile device in the prior 3 months.
The MasterCard survey was conducted across fourteen Asia Pacific markets. Among these markets were: Australia, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong and India. The poll ran online in November of last year. It involved the participation of 8,738 consumers and included questions regarding their m-commerce habits or lack thereof.
80 percent of participants felt payment security was critical to the appeal of m-commerce opportunities.
The survey results also showed that 44 percent of Hong Kong respondents used their mobile devices to make a purchase during the 3 months prior to the research. This was a slight increase over the figure from 2015. That year, 43 percent of Hong Kong participants had used mobile commerce in the three months previous to the survey. The growth from 2014 to 2015 had been greater as only 38 percent of respondents from that area were using mobile shopping that year.
Fourteen percent of the respondents had not made any smartphone based purchases during the designated quarter but said they intended to buy over mobile commerce during the first half of 2017.
For most consumers – 55 percent – convenience was the primary driving factor when it came to making mobile shopping purchases. Another 42 percent said it was because of the rise in the availability of apps. Twenty six percent appreciated the opportunity to shop while they were on the go.
About half of Hong Kong consumers had downloaded an m-commerce app onto a mobile device in the six months prior to the survey. The top category for mobile shopping was clothing and accessories (34 percent), followed by movie tickets (26 percent).
