Despite The Poor Economy, Malaysians Are Shopping Online More Than Ever

In 2016, iPay88 recorded 38.2 million online transactions via its payment gateway systems, which is a substantial increase of 161 percent (from 14.6 million in 2015).

“Over the review period, we would have thought that consumers are tightening their belts due to a squeeze in their disposable income in view of the current economic "winter". However, iPay88’s payment system shows otherwise as eCommerce and online purchases went up by 210 percent over the same comparable period," Lim said in a press release.

“Online shoppers do not just shop when they are desktop-bound but using mobile phone is just as easy. Apart from that, another factor that would encourage online shopping when the government starts to implement the abolishment of tariffs imposed on items being shipped into the country that are priced over RM500," he said.

“It is indeed good to know that overall consumer confidence is not decreasing. Based on our findings, the spending appetite of the online shoppers remains positive and that issues like data security and fraud have become negligible," Lim added.

In the company's Malaysian’s Online Buying Patterns report, some of the most popular online purchases are apparel and footwear, accessories and jewellery, electronics and sports equipment.

Meanwhile, popular days for online shopping are the later part of the week namely Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

However, this trend decreases over the weekend - possibly due to the lifestyle fact that Malaysians tend to go offline on Saturday and Sunday.