SINGAPORE (Dec 25): This year’s Orchard Road light-up runs 2.88km — from Tanglin Mall to Plaza Singapura. It features a Christmas village, a 20m fairy lights passage and a Christmas countdown clock. According to the Orchard Road Business Association, this year’s Christmas decorations took 76,800 hours to make. And an additional 15,120 man hours are likely to be spent to get the famous shopping street ready for Christmas.
As e-commerce eats into their earnings, physical retailers are making a greater effort to attract shoppers. The Christmas season can be particularly important. A recent survey by supermarket operator Giant shows that most Singaporeans are likely to spend $100 to $300 just on gifts this year, and one in five Singaporeans is putting aside more than $500 for their festive shopping.
The survey polled 500 Singaporeans and found that children (53%) are top gift recipients, followed by close friends (49%), significant others (43%) and colleagues/bosses (40%). Surprisingly, professional relationships sometimes trump personal ones: About 10% more respondents are likely to buy gifts for colleagues and bosses versus siblings or parents.
