A Shopper’s Guide to Singapore. PART 1

Shopping is one of the greatest pleasures in Singapore. Part of the fun is the excellent buys and great variety of shops all over the island. Delight in a bargain at a little neighbourhood shop, pick up a quaint item or two as you stroll through colourful ethnic quarters, discover favourite buys of the droves who flock to Singapore’s modern malls or be enthralled by the splendour of whole shopping “cities” selling everything under the sun. This shopping series is made up of five parts, and will give you all the information you need should you decide to visit the lion city.

Many top hotels also have an attached shopping arcade with fine boutiques specializing in designer fashion, accessories, jewellery and watches.

And designer brands from the fashion runways of the world can be affordable – if you know where to look. Find them at the growing number of discount shops around the city. The magic is affordable in Singapore.

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Social media marketing becomes a hot topic in Travel industry.

“According to data available in the US, users are spending on average 30 minutes at social networking sites on a monthly basis” – EyeforTravel reports. And it is known that UGC can increase conversion to bookings.

But the situation is not the same for Asian people. They are not committed enough to such kind of communication:

“According to James Sundram, Head of Asia, Lonely Planet Publications, the presence of brands on sites such as YouTube, Second Life, Facebook etc is definitely worth the investment, but the Asians are generally not ready nor committed to use such community sites for their travel planning and arrangements”. Asians are still shy to participate.

So what is the way out?

LP, for example, suggests to overcome these limits by enhancing connectivity via mobile phone:

“These developments will benefit the Asian traveller much more because of the usage trends. Asians are not known to be avid readers but Asians love their mobile phones, and penetration in HK / Korea / Singapore / Philippines etc is more than one phone per person”.