A NIELSEN Global Online Survey in March shows that eight out of 10 Singaporeans have shopped online.

With household broadband Internet penetration of 81 per cent and the proliferation of secure online shopping sites, it is no wonder that Singaporeans are trawling the Internet for great buys.

Comgateway and vPost report that the number of online transactions increased last year, with the former seeing a five-fold jump in transactions and the latter reporting a 50 per cent increase from the previous year.

Online shoppers here are careful to shop only in secure and trusted sites.

Some of the favourites are www.victoria-secret.com, www.gap.com, www.oldnavy.com, www.amazon.com, www.forever21.com, besides auction sites eBay and Yahoo! The most popular items are clothes, accessories, books, DVDs and gadgets.

Ms Dawn Lee, 31, a human resource manager, says shopping online gives her access to a lot more options.

"Most of the stores here carry similar items, which means that a lot of people end up looking the same. I prefer a more unique look, and I can always find greater variety on the Internet," she says.

Ms Lisan Ng, 32, a marketing manager, says: "I discovered the convenience of online shopping recently when I started shopping for groceries online. It was so easy to get my shopping done without having to leave the house with a three-month-old in tow or having to worry about getting babysitters."

For lecturer Jen Lee, 38, experiencing a 40 per cent error rate on the tops she had bought has not deterred her from shopping online.

"Learning from my mistakes is part of the fun of online shopping."

Mr Keran Rappa, 32, a producer/director, says, "I look for DVDs and CDs that I can't get in Singapore or are too expensive. I buy in bulk, create a long shopping list of what I want and that makes it cheaper in the end."

Buying in bulk is a growing trend in e-commerce.

CATS Classified's e-marketplace portal ST701 recently launched ST701 Spree to cater to this burgeoning business.

Says Ms Elsie Chua, executive vice-president of CATS Classified: "We recently launched our spree service on our portal and have included over 600 American retailers. This will ensure our shoppers have more options to purchase with ease from these sites."

Will online shopping eat into the business of brickand- mortar retailers? It does not seem likely, going by the response of some shoppers.

Says Mr Jameson Soh, 31, a marketing manager: "Actually, during the Great Singapore Sale (GSS), I cut down on my online shopping. I look forward to purchasing some of my bigticket items during the sale, things like bed linens, furniture, crockery, cookware, baby stuff, so I make sure that I reduce my online shopping during this period. I still prefer to touch and feel such big-ticket items that I am purchasing."

Adds Ms Linda Seah, a 22-year-old law undergraduate: "Part of the fun in GSS is the palpable atmosphere of a sale, which you can't get online."

Ms Lau Chuen Wei, executive director of the Singapore Retailers Association, says: "Shopping is an activity to be enjoyed with friends and relations, and which includes an entire day out to eat, watch the world go by, catch up on the latest with each other. So, even if the incidence of e-shopping may be increasing, e-shopping will never replace the enjoyment of physically trawling the shopping centres."

This article was first published in The Straits Times on June 4, 2008.