Online grocery shopping on the rise in Singapore

Shopping for groceries online took off in a big way in the last year, although the service has been around for nearly a decade.

PayPal, which provides online payment services to virtual grocery stores here, reports that consumers here spent almost 200 per cent more in the first eight months of this year than they did in the whole of last year - with the year-end festive period surge still to come at that.

PayPal handles payments for household.sg, thebutcher.com.sg and supernature.com.sg, among other virtual retailers.

The convenience of shopping in the comfort of one's own home, and then having the items delivered, perhaps for an extra $7 to $12, is hard to top for Internet- savvy, time-strapped consumers.