How Singapore and rest of the region ring in the year-end festivities

As the calendar turns its final page, GrabAds, the advertising unit of Southeast Asia’s superapp Grab, gathered data to understand how consumers celebrate the holiday season. 

A regional survey reveals that—even in the age of  retail brands going digital—consumers are not quite ready to part entirely with the physical shopping experience. But increasingly, delivering gifts on-time through an on-demand platform, choosing presents online to be delivered directly to the recipient, or choosing digital gifts, such as vouchers or tickets, is becoming part of the holiday gifting habits.

(Read more: Hitting $100M revenue run rate this year, GrabAds is one of Southeast Asia’s fastest growing advertising platforms)

More than 67 per cent of over 12,000 Grab users surveyed across Southeast Asia in September this year said they prefer to shop both online and offline. They’re on the hunt for a good bargain, the variety of options offered by retailers and the promise that their shopping would arrive in time for the holidays. 

The joy of gifting

In-person gifting remains a popular choice. When that isn’t possible, many respondents

intend to have gifts delivered directly to the recipient or use an on-demand delivery service such as GrabExpress.

Grab’s 100+ Cities Delivery, too, has been a popular way for users to send gifts to loved ones living abroad. The feature allowed users to order and send food and gifts to others in 100 cities across Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.  

Some 40 per cent of those surveyed said they intend to send gifts directly to recipients after ordering it while 28 per cent surveyed plan to use an on-demand delivery service. 

Last year, Grab saw the weekly number of GrabExpress users increase by 13 per cent in the four weeks leading up to the Christmas weekend.

Apart from traditional gifts, one in five respondents are open to exploring experiential gifts such as dining experiences or digital vouchers. The most popular types of experiential gifts were digital vouchers, tickets (e.g. holiday and concert) and subscription services.

Holiday feasts

As the year-end festivities draw close, GrabFood users also tend to order more per transaction as people celebrate over larger meals and gatherings. 

On the eve of Christmas and New Year’s last year, Grab saw the basket sizes of food orders increase by 7 and 8 per cent respectively. Chicken, fast food as well as snacks and confectionery were among the most ordered items. 

(Read more: What Singapore and the rest of the region ate in 2023, according to Grab data)

Consumers were also turning to GrabMart to prepare for their festive gatherings. There was a 10 and 27 per cent increase in the number of food orders on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve respectively. 

The top orders include frozen meat, fresh produce, beverages, cooking essentials, as well as snacks and ice cream.