How E-commerce and Online Shopping Affect Singapore's Economy and Its Citizens

Running Head: E-COMMERCE AND ONLINE SHOPPING
HOW E-COMMERCE AND ONLINE SHOPPING AFFECT SINGAPORE’S ECONOMY
AND ITS OWN CITIZENS.
Student’s name
Professor’s name
Course title
Institution
Date

E-COMMERCE AND ONLINE SHOPPING
ABSTRACT
The primary objective of this paper is to explore and study the impacts of both e- commerce
and online shopping not only to Singapore’s economy but also to the citizens themselves.
According to Singapore Department of Statistics, over 4.59 million Singaporeans have access
to internet per 2018 and the figure is estimated to grow to 4.93 million by the year 2022. Our
findings prove that Singapore is one of the countries that have a well-developed e-commerce
infrastructure not only in Pacific Asia but also in the world. Despite most of the academic
studies focusing on countries in Europe and the United States of America, the documentation
of the e- commerce in the Pacific Asia has improved over time as the region strives to be a
global leader in commerce. Various literature review has been done in a bid to determine the
impacts of the growth of e-commerce in Singapore.

E-COMMERCE AND ONLINE SHOPPING
Introduction
The World Bank ranked Singapore as the second place to do business in the world
after New Zealand. This has been facilitated by various factors including a fast-reliable IT
network, tech savvy population and a highly dedicated government to ensure and promote
and develop internet infrastructure and formulating favourable policies. It is estimated that by
the year 2021 the mobile ad expenditure will grow up to $2.20 accounting for 69% of the
total digital ad expenditure (Tandon, 201). A study done by a property consultancy group JLL
in Singapore showed that over 60% of the population shop online or at least they base what to
buy on the information they get online either with mobile phones or with computers.
Literature Review
The development of ecommerce has far-reaching impacts to the economy. The
economic growth of most countries in Pacific Asia is attributed to the development of ICT as
well as the digitalization of business according Fintech Singapore study (Singapore, 2018).
The growth of online shopping and e commerce has the following thematic impacts on the
general economy. The impacts have been seen to cause a good elevation towards the
economy and people of Singapore. Development of ICT has played the major role in the
economic growth of Singapore and its people.
Employment
According to the Ministry of Manpower statistics, unemployment rate in 2017 stood
at 2.2 % (manpower, 2015).The development of e commerce has opened numerous
employment channels to the residents of Singapore at different stages from ICT experts who
develop web pages and shopping sites to sales agents who are online throughout the day to
meet the needs of buyers at any time of the day. In addition, the need of easy and convenient
delivery of goods purchased online lead to the need of employing people for the same