Technology fundamentally changing the retail calendar: PayPal

• Holiday shopping starts earlier and ends later, and it’s a global marketplace, thanks to online
• Opportunity for merchants in Malaysia to tap into the global festive shopping phenomenon

MORE shoppers in Malaysia are actively scouring the online global marketplace and planning their gift buying earlier. Last year, PayPal’s Skip the Queues survey revealed that holiday shopping in Malaysia is starting as early as October.
 
Online holiday deals start now and consumers are still hungry to snap up the best offers available, but today they’re shopping from a global marketplace, not just at shopping malls.
 
This is part of a much bigger trend: Technology is fundamentally changing the retail calendar. Holiday shopping starts earlier and ends later, PayPal said in a statement.
 
The survey also revealed that Malaysians were expected to save almost 36 hours of their lives by doing nearly half of their holiday shopping online, avoiding their major pet peeves of mall shopping – trouble finding a parking lot (67%) and queuing at checkout lines (65%).
                                                                                     
The Black Friday to Cyber Monday four-day period is one of the largest shopping long weekends in the United States where merchants offer massive discounts as the traditional start of the US holiday shopping season.
 
Savvy Malaysian shoppers know that such sales are no longer exclusive to US consumers and that they can now participate in super sales by their favourite brands, whether it’s Ralph Lauren, J.Crew, Saks or promotions on eBay, PayPal said.
 
This is also an incredible opportunity for merchants in Malaysia who are selling internationally to tap into the festive shopping phenomenon being observed around the world.
 
PayPal recently released a Modern Day Spice Routes report, which showed that 94 million consumers are shopping online beyond their borders, with the global cross border shopping opportunity projected to be worth more than US$100 billion in the top six markets alone.
 
According to last year’s Skip the Queues survey, the five most popular shopping categories during this end year shopping bonanza period for Malaysians were clothing (46%), bags and accessories (43%), electronic gadgets (38%), shoes (35%), and fragrances (29%).
 
The survey also showed that over 68% of Malaysian consumers would shop on their mobile devices over the festive shopping season. Thus, merchants have a huge opportunity to capitalise on these trends and meet consumer demands to drive local and international sales (click picture to download infographic).
 
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