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Denise Tsang

Fiona Sun

Hong Kong’s political turmoil, now in its fifth month, has given an unexpected boost to online shopping, e-retailers say.
“It has been so hard to push online retailing in the city in the past few years mostly because shopping is so convenient [around the city],” says Eric Sun Yung-tson, founding vice-chairman of Hong Kong O2O E-Commerce Federation, the digital retail promotion alliance representing 100 companies with online services.
“Now the tables are turned.”
Sun, who is also managing director of cookware maker Kinox, says he himself has stopped going to stores in recent months and now shops online for fashion items.
People are buying more groceries, clothes and even furniture online, and ordering food to be delivered to their homes instead of going out.
Hong Kong tourism reels as protests, disruptions keep travellers away
Daily life in Hong Kong has been disrupted by protests which have paralysed public transport and caused malls, shops and restaurants to restrict their hours of operation or to even close temporarily.
Popular shopping areas including Causeway Bay, Admiralty, Wan Chai and Nathan Road have been the scene of clashes between radical protesters and police, with tear gas and live rounds fired, and damage to public property and businesses.

As of October 13, radical protesters had wreaked havoc at 90 per cent of the city’s 94 MTR stations and 83 per cent of 68 light rail stations. Mobs started fires, smashed up station equipment and ripped out fixtures.
Businesses in crossfire of protest crisis, as new phone apps make shopping political
The MTR Corporation has shortened operating hours to carry out repairs. The disruption has affected access to nearby shopping malls and also discouraged people from going to troubled areas.
“It is inconvenient to go out shopping or eating,” says Mariana Kou Chung-yin, head of China education and Hong Kong consumer research at brokerage CLSA. “There are more online transactions over smaller amounts of merchandise.”

She adds that people still prefer to shop for luxury items in stores, rather than online.
The protests combined with the effects of the ongoing trade war between the United States and Beijing has also hurt Hong Kong retail sales, which shrank 23 per cent to HK$29.4 million in August year-on-year while dropping 6 per cent over the first eight months.
Kou forecasts that retail sales will tumble 17 per cent this year as the protests and trade war show no signs of ending soon.

Bucking the trend are online and delivery shopping platforms HKTVmall and HoKoBuy which recorded higher revenue between July and September. Customers can have their orders delivered to them, or pick the items up at stores.
For the past four years, HKTVmall has offered a wide range of goods from food and beverage items to sports, household, fashion, beauty and health as well as electronics and lifestyle products. HoKoBuy offers bulk purchases with discounts on consumer products, tour packages, and meals at restaurants.
Entrepreneur Ricky Wong Wai-kay's Hong Kong Television Network, which runs both platforms, says the average number of daily orders jumped 40.5 per cent to 16,300 year on year in September, or up almost 15 per cent month on month.
Its average gross sales for merchandise jumped 36.8 per cent to HK$7.8 million in September from the same month a year ago or 1.2 per cent from August.

Kou says another boost for online shopping could be the more advanced electronic payment system available after the city rolled out more licences on stored value facilities about two years ago.
Jennifer Tan, chief executive of e-payment service provider AlipayHK, says the e-payment system which uses QR codes, has about 50,000 merchants around Hong Kong and over 2 million users since its inception locally 19 months ago.
“Food and beverage takeaways through our merchants have been performing well as the social events unfold,” she says.
Alipay HK is a joint venture between tycoon Li Ka-shing’s conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings and Ant Financial, e-commerce giant Alibaba’s financial affiliate. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Among those who have taken to shopping online is university student Wong, 25, who asks to be identified only by his surname.
He says he rarely shopped online in the past, but the protests have changed his buying behaviour.
“I was planning to go to the Ikea store in Causeway Bay to buy a new bed this weekend, and I wanted to try out different beds there,” he says. “But I'm worried there might be protests in the area on the weekend, so I picked one online instead.”


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Hong Kong protests

Online shopping gets a boost as wary Hong Kong consumers stay home to avoid protests

Online shopping has cottoned on with consumers.

Protesters throw petrol bombs and set objects on fire during scuffles with police following an anti-extradition bill march from Causeway Bay towards Wan Chai and Admiralty. 29SEP19 SCMP / K. Y. Cheng

The entire MTR railway system remains closed a day after anti-government protesters vandalized and damaged MTR facilities at Sha Tin Station after the government issued an anti-mask law. 05OCT19 SCMP/ Felix Wong

Protesters gather for a sing-along protest ‘the Town is ever-singing’ at New Town Plaza in Sha Tin. Anti-government protesters march around the mall, targeting businesses with mainland connections, or those known to have criticised protest violence. 22SEP19 SCMP / Nora Tam

Ricky Wong Wai-kay of HKTVmall launches new round of shopping offers and opens its first store at North Point. 20OCT16 SCMP / Felix Wong

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Hong Kong

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Hong Kong Economy


More shoppers are going online to buy groceries, food, clothes and even furniture
Online transactions are easier, now that better e-payment systems are available



More shoppers going online to buy groceries, food, clothes and even furniture


City Weekend

Hong Kong economy

Retailing

Online shopping gets a boost as wary Hong Kong consumers stay home to avoid protests

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} More shoppers are going online to buy groceries, food, clothes and even furniture Online transactions are easier, now that better e-payment systems are available

More shoppers are going online to buy groceries, food, clothes and even furniture

Online transactions are easier, now that better e-payment systems are available