Southeast Asia’s Online Groceries Soar as Daily COVID Cases Surge

Southeast Asia experienced another shocking wave of the coronavirus this year. In fact, a lot of its countries’ daily cases have reached a record-breaking high in 2021.

Naturally, SEA consumers are taking precautionary measures by limiting time spent outside their homes. And this includes purchasing essentials online.

iPrice Group, Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce aggregator, discovered that the web visits of online grocery sites across the region surged by 68% in the last six months. Since March, the online groceries’ web traffic has been on a steady upward tick.
Daily COVID Cases & Implemented Restrictions Spur Online Groceries’ Growth
The aforementioned surge is consistent with implemented restrictions or the peak of daily cases in each country.

Vietnam, for instance, was globally recognised for its coronavirus response in the previous year, containing the spread of its cases with minimal restrictions. This year, however, the country recorded thousands of daily cases from July to September. It comes as no surprise that its top online grocery site’s web visits more than doubled in August compared to 5 months ago.

Meanwhile, the Philippines saw a record-breaking number of daily coronavirus cases in August. Just when its government implemented an enhanced community quarantine in major cities, two of its top online grocery sites’ traffic increased by 72% compared to March.

Similar trends could be seen in Thailand and Indonesia. The top Thai online groceries’ web traffic increased by 59% in August compared to March. Indonesia’s surge was seen in July, during the peak of their daily COVID cases, and its top online groceries’ web traffic surged by 51% that month.

In Malaysia, the government ordered a strict lockdown in May. In the same month, its top online groceries’ web traffic in the country rose by 50% compared to the previous month. Although their daily cases have been reaching their highest in recent months, the government loosened restrictions. As a result, online groceries’ web traffic declined.

Singapore seems to be the only country in the study with daily cases below a thousand. The country considers shifting towards the “endemic” stage. Thus, there weren’t any notable differences in their online groceries’ web traffic in the past 6 months.
Price Difference of Market Items Among the SEA Countries
According to iPrice’s previous study, Singapore, Bangkok, and Manila are the top cities in the region with the most expensive cost of living. Thus, it’s quite refreshing to see that the Philippines has the cheapest market items. Based on data from Numbeo, a full range of market items (from dairy to fruits & vegetables to alcohol) in the Philippines’ amount to an average of only US$49. Following close behind the Philippines is Vietnam with its grocery items only 10% more expensive (US$54).

Grocery items in Malaysia and Indonesia are fairly inexpensive as well, but items like beer, wine, and cigarettes are heavily taxed, which makes these items more than twice as expensive as the same items in the Philippines.

The top two countries with the most expensive cost of living also have the most expensive grocery items. Singapore’s items are more than twice as much as the Philippines’ items, amounting to US$112, while Thailand is 41% more expensive (US$69).

With jobs and businesses lost due to the virus, noting the cost of essentials is important for governments to provide sufficient subsidies. Unfortunately, the government aid in some of these countries are just not enough to cope with the losses.

END OF REPORT

Methodology
Web traffic data of the top 1-2 online groceries in each SEA country was collected from SimilarWeb. Only websites with 10,000 or more web visits are included. The online groceries included in the study were the following: MetroMart (PH), WalterMart (PH), Bach Hoa Xanh (VN), Happy Fresh (ID), Sayurbox (ID), Tesco (MY), Jaya Grocer (MY), Big C (TH), Tesco Lotus (TH), NTUC Fairprice (SG), and Cold Storage (SG). The average prices of grocery items were collected on August 24, 2021 from www.numbeo.com under the "markets" section. The items were grouped together by iPrice for simpler presentation. Numbeo gathers data from user inputs (from over 500,000 contributors) and manually collects data from authoritative sources. Data is updated twice a year. Numbeo filters data in each country by using heuristic technology and periodically removes statistically inaccurate data. The rates were converted using XE currency's average USD conversion in the past 90 days from September 6, 2021.

iPrice Group Sdn Bhd, Unit 35-01, Level 35, The Vertical Corporate Office Tower B, Bangsar South, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Price Group is Southeast Asia’s leading online shopping companion. With a mission to bring a greater level of transparency, convenience and trust to the e-commerce market across Southeast Asia in order to help people save money, the company today operates in seven countries across Southeast Asia namely Malaysia, Singapore,Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Currently, iPrice compares and catalogs 6+ billion e-commerce offers from more than 2 million sellers, attracting more than 35 million monthly visits across the region. iPrice currently operates under its own brand iPrice and through various partnerships with leading apps, such as SmartPay (Vietnam), Boost (Malaysia), GoRewards (Philippines), Home Credit (Indonesia) Visense (Singapore), Robinsons rewards (Philippines) & Boost (Malaysia).

This release was published on openPR.