Among those who took part in a survey, 31 percent said they used their smartphones and tablets to shop.
According to the results of a survey that was conducted among consumers in Singapore, there has been a considerable rise in the number that are using their smartphones for mobile commerce purposes over the last year.
The most recent step of the study was conducted from March through May to view the popularity of this channel.
The study that was conducted by the research firm, Nielsen, was held from March all the way through May. It determined that when compared to the same period in the previous year, the popularity of mobile commerce had risen to 31 percent after having been 24 percent at the same time in 2012. This placed the Singapore city state well ahead of other countries within that same region.
The mobile commerce in Singapore was followed by Hong Kong in its popularity level.
In Hong Kong, the area where mobile commerce was second most popular, had 28 percent of the survey participants taking part in this form of shopping. In Malaysia, it was 27 percent of the survey participants, whereas, in Australia, there were 27 percent of the respondents who said that they shop over their smartphones.
The Nielsen research included the participation of more than 18,700 people who reside in nine different markets in the Asia Pacific region. In Singapore, there were approximately 1,300 people who had been asked whether or not their handset had been used for mobile commerce purposes within the previous month.
It should still be noted that while Singapore was the region that had the highest growth rate in terms of the use of mobile commerce, it was not in the lead for overall usage. In that category, the city state was considered to be in third place. It was well behind Japan, the first place holder, where nearly 90 percent of respondents had used their smartphones for shopping online. It was also behind South Korea, where an estimated two out of every three consumers was using their handsets for researching and buying products.
This is a notable increase when compared to the mobile commerce figure from the same quarter in 2012, which was 11.6 percent. This indicates that it could be highly beneficial for retailers and other companies to recreate a version of their website that is meant specifically for smartphones and tablets. This way, no matter what device the consumer happens to prefer, all of the content will be easily available, improving the experience of the visitor.