S’pore shoppers within top three country spenders for events like Singles’ Day & Black Friday

YouGov’s latest report reveals key insights for seasonal FMCG and retail marketers, based on data across 18 international markets

Characterised by steep, ‘must-grab’ discounts and offers, seasonal shopping events have undeniably disrupted traditional holiday shopping. YouGov’s latest report for the FMCG and retail sector – which explores the dynamics of seasonal shopping and consumer purchasing process – reveals that appetite for such events is high in Singapore, with the proportion of those who participate in Singles’ Day (22%) and Thanksgiving (32%) sales being the second and third highest among the 18 markets surveyed.

In all markets, except for China where Singles’ Day takes a clear lead, consumers are more likely to shop for Thanksgiving sales than Alibaba-introduced Singles’ Day. Looking specifically at the shopping behaviour of those in Singapore, one in three say they participate in Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales (32%), falling behind only Spain (41%) and Italy (40%). Another one in five shop during Singles’ Day, accounting for the second largest proportion of shoppers after China (33%), where the occasion originated.

Even as Singles’ Day evolves as a global shopping festival, participation from Asian markets still supersedes that of the West, with less than 5% of consumers in Spain, Germany, Italy, and France saying they shopped for Singles’ Day.

Diving into the demographics of these seasonal shoppers in Singapore, adults aged 25-34 are most likely to shop for both Black Friday or Cyber Monday (47%) and Singles’ Day (34%), followed by those aged 35-44 (40% for Black Friday or Cyber Monday; 30% for Singles’ Day).

Those above 55 are least likely to be interested in these shopping events, with only one in five (19%) and one in ten (10%) shopping Thanksgiving and Singles’ Day sales respectively.

The report, The Path to Purchase for Global Seasonal Events, also sheds light on how seasonal shopping behaviours differs across events, to aid FMCG brands and retailers in the planning of their seasonal marketing and advertising campaigns. When it comes to purchase planning around consumer shopping days, most global shoppers plan their purchases at most a week in advance (68% each).

Consumers are most likely to plan their Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales 2-3 days in advance, with slightly fewer only deciding what to purchase on the day of or day before sales (23%). One in eight will plan as early as 2-3 weeks in advance (13%), and fewer than one in ten would plan a month (7%) or more (4%) in advance.

Similar trends are observed for Singles’ Day, although more say they start planning their purchases a week in advance (24% for Singles’ Day vs 21% for Black Friday or Cyber Monday).

Methodology:

The insights in this report are drawn from a recent global YouGov Custom Research survey exploring shopping and consumption behavior in relation to seasonal events. The survey exclusively focuses on the following events: Christmas or Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Summer Holidays, Easter or Spring Break, Back-to-School, Amazon Prime Day/Week, Halloween, and Singles Day. This research was conducted across 18 global markets and fielded between 23^rd February 2022 and 15^th March 2022. Please find sample details below.

YouGov BrandIndex measures brand health, from thousands of consumer interviews every day across 54 markets. The BrandIndex data utilised in this study covers the UK and the US, collected in May 2022.

To enrich this study, we additionally pulled the Indexed search volume data from YouGov Signal for topics: Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, and Halloween from 1^st April 2021 to 10^th May 2022 in the US region.

For further information or for any questions about the data used in this report, please get in touch.