But the public health move came at a steep cost for an industry that was already shrinking since last year.
Looking ahead,"the outlook for recovery remains bleak", a spokeswoman for the Singapore Retailers Association told The Business Times. She cited factors such as safe-distancing measures in stores and shopping malls,"which will reduce the opportunity for sales conversion". However, she expects car sales to markedly improve when Certificate of Entitlement bidding resumes next week after a three-month halt.
OCBC Bank chief economist Selena Ling called online sales a silver lining, while Barnabas Gan, an economist at United Overseas Bank, said the e-commerce surge suggested encouraging and robust demand from consumers."The revenue generated from online retail will never be able to replace the revenue generated from physical stores," said the SRA spokeswoman, noting that overheads still exist.
Meanwhile, F&B services sales dropped by 50.1 per cent in May across all categories. Restaurants were the worst hit, with a 68.7 per cent sales drop, while fast food outlets eked out a 20.5 per cent decrease.