Singaporean online shoppers are increasingly supportive of products based on fair trade principles.

The number of consumers in Singapore willing to pay more for ethical products has held steady as compared to last year, according to the latest MasterCard survey on ethical spending.

Ethical shopping online

Conscientious spending appears to be taking off amongst online shoppers, with an increasing number of Singaporeans purchasing items which are based on fair trade principles (9 per cent to 45 per cent) or are environmentally friendly (4 per cent to 37 per cent).

Ethical shopping offline

Ethical reasons continue to have bearings on purchase behavior amongst Singaporeans with at least one in two individuals having purchased items because of one or more ethical reasons.

Products based on fair trade (64 per cent) remain the top motivation for "responsible" purchase, followed by if they were environmentally friendly (55 per cent) or if a percentage of the sales was donated to a good cause (40 per cent).

Four in 10 Singaporean respondents indicating willingness to pay more for items associated with ethical causes this year, similar to 2010's forecast for 2011.

Amongst those surveyed, affinity towards social organizations that deal with children's health and education appeared to be the strongest for respondents in Singapore, and affinity towards social organisations that deal with poverty/starvation remain highly important.

Results also demonstrated an increase in affinity towards aid for animals, women and the physically handicapped.

The survey was conducted via online interviews between December 5, 2011 and January 6, 2012 and involved 12,500 consumers from 25 markets across Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, with 500 respondents between the ages of 18 to 64 from Singapore.

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