When it comes to shopping, what really matters to Singaporeans?

While 70% of online shoppers said cost remains a key consideration for online purchases, 80% are willing to pay a higher price to ensure product quality and authenticity.

More than half of online shoppers surveyed said product quality (58%) has become a more important consideration for them compared to two years ago, followed by product costs (57%) and shipping costs (47%). Apart from quality and cost considerations, customer reviews (44%) and authenticity (39%) ranked among the top five factors in terms of growing importance amongst consumers when making an online purchase.

The findings suggest that consumers increasingly want assurances that their purchases are as advertised within the product information and seek to find the best balance among product quality, price, and authenticity, beyond simply purchasing items at the lowest cost. But this was more significant among online shoppers aged 25 to 34 years, where almost two in three (63%) said product quality has become more important to them. Less than half (49%) of online shoppers aged 35 to 44 felt the same way.

At Amazon, we’re dedicated to ensuring product quality and authenticity, and have measures in place to support this. This includes our Brand Registry program, which provides proactive protections to stop infringing listings or inaccurate content, and our seller verification process, which requires sellers to provide detailed information about their business, including proof of identity and contact information.

More than half of e-commerce shoppers (51%) believe that some responsibility of ensuring product authenticity lies with the seller or distributor, followed by the e-commerce stores (43%). About one in three (32%) believe it’s a shared responsibility between the e-commerce stores, sellers, and consumers. Only 7% of shoppers feel personally responsible for verifying the authenticity of a product, indicating a heavy reliance on the store and sellers to ensure the integrity of their purchases.

The findings also indicate a strong demand for e-commerce stores to do more to increase trust in the business. The majority (64%) of online shoppers expressed a desire for stores to provide more ways for consumers to verify the authenticity of products. The survey’s participants also emphasized the need for reliable customer service (62%), while 57% called for stricter screening measures for sellers.

In line with consumers’ growing demands for more action to safeguard customers on e-commerce stores, we’re actively working towards enhancing authenticity verification mechanisms, providing reliable customer service, and implementing stringent screening processes for sellers. Our robust seller verification, including connecting one-on-one with prospective sellers through video chat, coupled with continued advancements in our machine learning-based detection, are deterring bad actors from even attempting to create new Amazon selling accounts. In 2022, we stopped over 800,000 attempts to create new selling accounts, preventing bad actors from publishing a single product for sale—down from 2.5 million attempts in 2021, and 6 million attempts in 2020.

Locally, the Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams released the annual E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings in May, where we maintained our leading position with a perfect score of four out of four ticks, a result of our robust anti-scam features in place to secure e-commerce transactions. We continue to advocate for consumer-centric approaches and work closely with sellers, distributors, and other partners to implement robust measures that guarantee product quality and authenticity.

Discounts, promotions, and sales are most important when online shoppers decide where to shop, with 62% indicating their preference for money-saving opportunities, and 61% of respondents saying they looked for value-for-money products. This demand for value demonstrates the need for e-commerce stores to curate products that deliver a balance between quality and affordability.

Competitive pricing was also a significant factor for 59% of participants, indicating that consumers actively compare prices across different stores to ensure they get the best possible deal. This means e-commerce stores must remain competitive and regularly assess their pricing strategies to attract and retain customers.