The time to have the sahur (pre-dawn meal) for Muslims is also when Malaysians start their shopping online.
A local meta-shopping website, iPrice Group, has found that Malaysians tended to begin their online shopping as early as 4am during Ramadan.
iPrice public relations and content marketer Jeremy Chew said its study showed that Malaysians remained avid online shoppers during Ramadan.
“In fact, the surge in online traffic shows that Malaysians shop while they have their sahur.
“By 5am, we see a 90.1 per cent drop in online traffic compared with regular seasons,” he told the New Straits Times.
Chew said after the Muslim morning prayers were completed, online traffic would continue to increase.
This, he said, proved that Malaysians remained active online before they left for work or school.
He said it was also found that Malaysians used their lunch breaks to shop online.
“While we see fewer people in restaurants during lunch hours during Ramadan, the online shopping arena is busier than ever.
“There is a 21 per cent increase in activity as many will be shopping online during their lunch breaks.
“Online shoppers remain active throughout the day and we will hit our peak traffic by 3pm during the fasting month,” he said.
After 3pm, Chew said there was a gradual drop in traffic with a 9.7 per cent drop by 7pm as Muslims prepared for the breaking of fast.
He said the findings were taken from more than 350,000 online sessions at iPrice.my during the first two weeks of Ramadan while iPrice also studied consumer behaviour in the final two weeks of Ramadan and during Hari Raya holidays based on past years’ data.
According to iPrice, Malaysians were expected to shop most during the third week of Ramadan as the Raya mood kicked in.
Chew said: “In addition to this, we expect to see a surge in last-minute online shopping by the last week of Ramadan.
“We will also see a slight increase in traffic three days before Hari Raya, indicating that many will shop at the last minute,” he said.
He said this was only possible in recent years when local delivery services were able to courier products to customers fast, and that there was a more efficient payment option.
On Hari Raya, he said, the e-commerce would sharply decline as people stayed off the Internet to celebrate the special occasion with family and friends.
“After Hari Raya, iPrice
expects Malaysians to shop more than before as many may have received their ‘duit raya’ from employers or relatives,” he said.