Online shopping in the Philippines

Interesting facts about the shopping habits of Filipino internet users

Although there is no denying that online shopping has brought much convenience to people’s lives, the issue poses a great challenge for retailers as there is a number of points to consider. What kind of devices do Filipinos use to shop online? How much money do they spend? How does the shopping activity change across the year? Is online shopping more popular among men or women? To look for answers, Picodi.com analysed last year’s data and presented the results in this report.

Smartphones on the rise

Mobile commerce is booming globally and it turns out Filipinos joined the trend. According to our internal data, half of transactions were made with the use of a mobile device last year.

When Filipinos did shopping with the use of a phone, the average order value was ₱3,997. It’s about ₱382 more than when using desktops (₱3,615) and ₱138 less when using tablets (₱4,135). iOS users spend more than Android users — ₱4,605 vs ₱3,958 on average.

The important question is who shops online more — men or women? Our data shows that there were more purchases made by Filipino women than those made by men, 62% and 38% respectively.

Unsurprisingly, it’s the young generation that prefers online shopping. More than half of all online shoppers (52%) are people between the ages of 25 and 34. They’re followed by people aged 18-24 (26%) and 35-44% (13%). The remaining 9% are consumers who are over 45 years old.

Busy end of the year

According to our research, the average order value of a Filipino shopper is the highest in June (₱5,409), followed by May and March (₱4,494 and ₱4,143 accordingly).

Compared to that, the average order value of a moderate ₱3,604 in November might come as a surprise. After all, that’s when Black Friday and 11.11 take place. The answer is rather easy. Even though their baskets are smaller during that time, Filipinos shop in a number of different online stores and place more orders. So if you look at the shopping activity, it turns out November has the highest number of transactions — 15.4% of all the transactions made during the year.

The same number of transactions was noted in December (15.4%), followed by January (13.2%). Last-minute Christmas shoppers might have greatly contributed to such a high number in the former month. The lowest number of transactions was noted in July (2.3%) with the average order value amounting to ₱3,618.

Consumers in the Philippines shop the most on Friday. Filipinos definitely prefer to shop in the afternoon: the peak of sales occurs between 12 PM and 6 PM.

The most popular categories for online shopping among Filipinos were: food on delivery, clothing, grocery, cosmetics & perfumes and electronics.

Online shoppers around the world

We analysed data from 35 countries and compared the devices people use to shop online and the average order value. The Philippines, with 49% of orders made on mobile devices, is among the countries where mobile shopping is on the rise. Peru tops the ranking with 76% of online purchases made with the use of smartphones. Close behind are Nigeria and Thailand (62% and 56%).

When it comes to the average order value, Filipinos with their US$73 (₱3,812) rank lower than the world’s average, which is US$79. Emiratis spent the most money per order — astonishing US$218. And it looks like Hungarians and Turks don’t like to spend a lot in one go. They are at the bottom of the ranking with US$32 and US$38 respectively.

Online shopping in numbers:

• half of transactions were made on a mobile device last year,
• there were more purchases made by women than by men (62% vs 38%),
• more than half of all online shoppers (52%) are people between the ages of 25 and 34,
• the average order value in the Philippines is the highest in June (₱5,409),
• the highest number of transactions was noted in November — 15.4% of all annual transactions,
• food on delivery, clothing and grocery are the top 3 categories for online shopping

Methodology

This report uses the internal data of a global e-commerce platform Picodi.com for 2018. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate for March 2019.

Public Use

Are you willing to share the information and infographics about shopping online in the Philippines with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.