_Singapore Retail: How are we faring compared to key Asian cities?
Tourism dollars have always played a significant role in the Singapore retail scene. While tourism receipts from shopping and food & beverages (F&B) per capita of tourists declined after 2008, marked improvements were reported from 2016, with tourism spending accounting for 16.7 per cent of the total retail sales (excluding motor vehicle sales) that year. With the increasing number of tourist arrivals to Singapore, it is therefore important to assess and understand Singapore’s position as a preferred Asian retail destination choice for travellers.
To better evaluate and benchmark Singapore’s position relative to other retail tourism hubs, Knight Frank Singapore Research assessed the performance of selected key retail cities against certain components, including air transport infrastructure, safety and security, prioritisation of travel and tourism, tourist service infrastructure, international openness, affordability of retail and F&B services, state and pace of digitisation, and ease of tax refund, amongst others.
While the analysis shows that Singapore and Hong Kong emerged as one of the most expensive retail markets for retailers in terms of prime retail rents, Singapore remained competitive with average prime retail rents at US$25.10 per square foot per month (psf pm) as compared to Hong Kong at US$47.70 psf pm.
Uncovering this knowledge through the rigorous analysis of our competitors, big data insights, relentless testing of new retail concepts, and more so, proactive collaboration amongst retailers, landlords, consultants and government agencies, would be important steps for Singapore to rise above the challenge quickly and establish itself as an attractive retail destination.
How Singapore fares compared to other key retail destinations in Asia
Source: World Economic Forum, Mastercard Global Website, various government websites, Knight Frank Research
Note: The higher the score value, the better the city fares as a retail destination. Weightage of each factor is based on Knight Frank’s assessment and scoring. These shortlisted cities are based on a pre-selected basket of cities tracked by Knight Frank Singapore Research.
- Only key factors, which reflect the Tourism Competitiveness from the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, by the World Economic Forum were shortlisted for purpose of this study.
- Knight Frank Singapore Research studied the affordability of Retail and F&B services based on a pre-selected basket of goods and services.
- State and pace of digitisation is assessed by the Digital Evolution Momentum Score Index in 2017, by Mastercard.
- Knight Frank Singapore Research assessed the ease of tax refund, measured by studying the tax refund policies of the respective cities, according to the various government agencies websites.
Read the full report, Singapore Retail: How are we faring compared to key Asian cities?
by Wendy Low & Caleb Hong