In this article, we explore theAsianparent Insights’ Holiday Season SG report to guide you into Marketing to Singaporean Mums During the Holiday Seasons.
Singaporean mums during the holiday seasons
Singaporeans are known by the world as work-a-holics who live in a country where leaving chewing gum in the wrong place can get you heavy fines. Naturally, this makes it sound like Singaporeans are a little uptight. However, despite how the rest of the world perceives them, Singaporeans still know how to have a good time. Especially during the holiday seasons where every Singaporean is excited to participate in the holiday festivities.
Image from AugustMan (KAWS: Holiday Singapore exhibition at the Marina Bay)
It’s true that Singaporeans care a lot about their careers and they have a ban on chewing gums. But all for a good reason, and at the end of the day, they still get tired and seek relaxation. This is evident in Singapore’s great people culture that allows hawker centres, bars, and nightclubs to be filled with people until the wee hours of the night.
However, one thing that’s exceptionally great at allowing Singaporeans to destress is shopping. Because of this, they shop a lot. The pandemic might have halted the physical shopping sprees, but they continued to shop online.
Singaporean mums are a big part of this population and it’s especially true during the holiday seasons where it’s almost mandatory for each mum to go shopping for gifts and groceries.
Holiday Season Report 2021: Singapore Results
Now that almost 100% of eligible Singaporeans are vaccinated and the country is determined to start living with the virus, mums have more confidence going out. 2 years after the pandemic began, how are the holiday shopping habits of Singaporean mums?
1. What is the most anticipated holiday by Singaporean mums?
Singapore’s culture is a mix of different Asian and European cultures. However, at the moment, the majority of Singapore’s population is made up of citizens of Chinese ethnicities. This is also true for Singaporean mums. Hence, it wasn’t surprising when we found that Chinese New Year is the most anticipated holiday by Singaporean mums.
However, Christmas is still widely celebrated by mums in SG. This holiday ranks second in their most anticipated holiday list.
2. How much budget do Singaporean mums have for gifts to their loved ones?
8 out of 10 mums intend to purchase more than 5 gifts for their loved ones. On average they would spend at least 470 SGD on these gifts which are approximately 4% of most families’ monthly incomes.
“Loved ones” include their partners, children, other relatives, friends, and some mums also include their neighbours.
When making holiday packages that are intended for gifts, it is important to keep this in mind. Later in this article, you will know that mums in SG typically don’t have fixed budgets for their holiday spending. However, it is natural for mums to have limitations when spending on gifts.
Anything outside of their average 470SGD budget for gifts might be tougher to sell to mothers who purchase most of the gifts in the household, including their kids’ gifts to other kids. After all, they don’t have an average spend for no reason.
The story is different when mums are buying household or other personal, non-gift items during the holiday sale period though.
3. Who do mums purchase gifts for the most?
Mums purchase most of the gifts their family needs for the holiday seasons. 90% of mums buy gifts for their kids while 79% buy for their friends. 69% of mums also buy gifts both for their relatives and spouses.
When marketing to mothers during the holidays, marketing materials that encourage mums to buy gifts for their children will be most attractive since it is their priority. Making irresistible deals on any gift packages for the groups of people mentioned will be highly helpful, though.
Including gift wrapping services can also be very motivating. Since most of these gifts are for their families, we can assume that mothers don’t want their children or spouses to see them wrapping their own gifts at home. It also decreases the amount of time mums need to spend on gifts, which means more rest for them. For most mums, rest is more valuable than gold.
4. What do mums usually buy as gifts?
For their kids
When buying gifts for their children, 88% of mums buy toys. However, a lot of educational games (68%), clothes (66%), and books (65%). Only 33% buy their children shoes while 6% buy gadgets.
For their loved ones
When buying gifts for their loved ones, food (68%) and clothing (60%) are on top of the list. However, cosmetics (47%), household items (42%), and personal items (40%) are also being bought a lot.
Shoes and gadgets might have a lower demand as gifts during the holidays than the others, but the demand is still there. More than likely, they are being bought less by mums because they are pricier items. Remembering to make attractive bundles like gaming consoles paired with AAA titles or educational games could be effective in increasing the demand for such pricier gift items.
Video gaming consoles are something both their kids and spouses might like as gifts. Marketing gaming consoles as a gift to both dad and their little ones can lead mothers to think that the prices are worthy since it’s hitting two birds with one stone.
Bundles can also work for the more popular gift items. Mums are always a fan of promotions.
5. Where do mums like to buy their gifts?
Over the pandemic, we found that mothers have grown a liking to online shopping. Our studies have also shown that 67% of mothers prefer to give their gifts personally. Does this mean they’re back to shopping purely offline these days?
The answer is no. Our study has shown that 82% of mothers like to buy gifts both online and offline during the holidays. Only 16% prefer to buy purely online while 2% prefer to buy purely offline.
The best way to deal with this is by having strong marketing tactics during the holidays, both online and offline.
6. Are mums going to be shopping for high-value items during the holiday season?
According to our holiday studies, 52% of Singaporean mums have plans to purchase high-value items during the holiday season.
On top of their high-value items purchasing list are consumer electronics (29%), home furniture (22%), and home appliances (20%).
When we asked them why they plan on purchasing high-value items during the holidays, one reason came on top. It’s because of the amount of discounts they can get during the holidays. 72% of mums have answered so.
Knowing this, it will be important for brands that sell high-value items in interesting packages and discounts during the holidays. We also found that 59% of mums have no fixed budget when holiday shopping so this is something that brands can really take advantage of.
7. What’s the online behaviour of Singaporean mothers during the holidays?
Despite the hectic schedules of mothers during the holidays, mums in SG still spend a quarter of their days on social media platforms. They spend 3.3 hours on mainstream social media while 1.6 hours are spent on parenting apps.
This is why social media and parenting apps influence a lot of their purchases. Whatever they see on these platforms tends to stay on their minds. That, or they immediately check items they see through e-commerce stores.
True enough, when purchasing gifts online, mums are highly motivated by e-commerce promotions (75%), recommendations from mums in online parenting apps (49%), online ads on e-commerce platforms (36%), and social media influencers (34%).
Bonus Marketing Tip
It’s hard to differentiate your products from others during the holidays since mums are more motivated by promotions during these seasons. Because of this, some brands overdo their discounts during the holiday season. This can potentially be harmful to your brand’s image and should be avoided.
Instead, observing and countering what your competitors are doing is key if you want mothers to buy your items as gifts. Being able to outperform your competitors’ marketing tactics will help you become more memorable. Hence, be prepared to act quickly when your competitors do something different that can potentially take the focus away from your brand.
Download the Holiday Season 2021: Singapore
To find out more about the behaviour of Singaporean mothers during favourite holidays like the Chinese New Year and Christmas, download the Holiday Season 2021: Singapore report.
If you have more specific needs, don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] for a free consultation.
