HP: Singaporeans adopting online shopping rapidly
SINGAPORE, 28 January 2000 – Hewlett-Packard Singapore today announced that its HP Online Store, buy.hp.com.sg is showing extremely strong growth, with revenue jumping 245% within the last six months of 1999. This, it believes, is a firm indication that Singaporeans are embracing online shopping rapidly.
December 1999 registered the highest transaction level and page hits for the HP Online Store since its launch in September 1998. Singaporeans’ Christmas shopping was taken to the Internet with page hits rising to an average of 5,566 a day and page views reaching 53,635 for the month.
The typical customer spent S$936 per transaction with the most popular products being the HP LaserJet 1100, HP LaserJet 1100A and HP’s Pavilion range of home PCs. Other hot items were the HP OmniBook Notebook PCs, HP Jornada Handheld PCs and HP inkjet printers.
The HP Online Store Christmas promotion in December offered special discounts and bundles on HP products such as HP Pavilion home PCs, HP PhotoSmart Digital Cameras and HP LaserJet printers. In addition, purchases were gift-wrapped and delivered for free.
"The onramp to business-consumer e-commerce has been hotly anticipated and is now happening in Singapore. Online sales figures have been very encouraging and we expect this to continue. For a purely transactional site, HP Online Store has had fairly good success," said Dennis Khoo, E-Business Manager, Commercial Customer Organization, Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Sales).
"Other than an affirmation of online sales becoming increasingly popular and being a way of life in Singapore, we also see another trend surfacing. The average Singaporean is imbued with an IT-savviness that wasn’t present before. When buying a technology product, the Singaporean shopper is very knowledgeable on the product specifications he or she wants and is comfortable with. A premium is also placed on competitive pricing, convenience and hassle-free shopping, hence making online shopping a preferred medium," added Khoo.
The HP Online store offers 600 items including PCs, inkjet and laser printers, all-in-one devices, digital cameras, scanners, suppliers and accessories. According to HP Singapore, prices on the HP Online Store are the same as the best prices advertized in the press and delivery is made within three days of the online order.
"We are already well regarded in Singapore for our customer service and support, having won numerous awards in this aspect. However, we are continually striving to improve and we believe that tapping on the personalized one-to-one communication enabled by the Internet is key. Having the HP Online Store supplementing our traditional channels of sales enables us to do business with our consumer customers whenever and wherever it is convenient for them," said Leong Han Kong, General Manager, Commercial Customer Organisation, Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Sales).
HP aims to triple the registered database of online customers in the next three months through aggressive transaction-oriented promotions.