# ShopBack’s Singapore Snapshot

> Plain-text mirror of https://corporate.shopback.com/data/sep-2026

*September 2026 · Singapore*

September school holidays appear to coincide with a notable shift in consumer behaviour towards travel, entertainment and at-home activities.

## Featured findings

| Metric | Index | Context |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Travel & Leisure | 1.11x | Up from 0.98x in August. One of the strongest month-on-month increases in the dataset. |
| Digital | 1.07x | A similar pattern appears across other school holiday periods. |
| Home | 1.06x | The strongest in-store discretionary category in September. |
| Online Discretionary Retail | 1.06x | Up slightly from 1.01x in August. |

How to read the index: For each category, we compare its average daily spend in a given month against its average daily spend across the full calendar year. We do this for 2023, 2024 and 2025 separately, then average the three results. 1.00 is a typical day for that category; 1.11x means September runs 11% above it. Each category is compared only against itself, so the index shows which months are busy for that category, not which categories are bigger, and not how one year compares with another.

## The Travel Shift

Travel & Leisure sees one of the strongest month-on-month increases in our dataset, rising from 0.98x in August to 1.11x in September. This comes alongside a rise in eSIMs expenditure. This likely reflects greater spending on short-haul trips, staycations, attractions and family activities during the school break.

Singapore users typically book their travel more than two months in advance, making it likely that consumers are locking in their year-end holiday plans in September. Travel demand begins building from September, making it the start of a sustained year-end booking season rather than a short-lived spike.

### Travel & Leisure Seasonality Index (2023 to 2025)

Index against the category's average day across the year. The base is 1.00.

| Period | Index |
| --- | --- |
| Base average | 1.00x |
| September | 1.11x |
| October | 1.18x |
| November | 1.24x |

Did you know that Singapore users are APAC's earliest travel planners? The median hotel booking is made 69 days before check-in, more than 3x the lead time seen in markets such as Indonesia and South Korea.

Averaged across 2023 to 2025, Travel & Leisure ran at 1.11x its typical day in September, 1.18x in October and 1.24x in November, against a base of 1.00 for the category's average day across the year.

**Median Hotel Booking Lead Time: 69 days**

Before check-in. More than 3x the lead time seen in markets such as Indonesia and South Korea.

## Digital & Entertainment

Digital spending edges up in September, reaching 1.07x, and shows a similar pattern across other school holiday periods, including March, June and November.

This suggests holiday periods may be associated with a greater appetite for in-home entertainment and increased spending on digital subscriptions, streaming services and notably, VPNs.

The rise in VPN spending is particularly interesting. Children and families typically spend more time consuming online entertainment during school holidays, and those spending more time at home may be turning to VPNs for greater privacy when browsing and shopping online. As concerns around online security and privacy grow, VPNs appear to be shifting from a niche tool to an everyday digital utility. Holiday periods also coincide with a seasonal pickup in travel, where VPNs may serve a different but reinforcing purpose: securing connections on public Wi-Fi. Whether at home or abroad, the pattern suggests consumers are increasingly reaching for VPNs across a range of everyday contexts.

## Home & Discretionary Retail

Home emerges as the strongest in-store discretionary category in September (1.06x), outperforming both Beauty and Fashion. Online Discretionary Retail is also 1.06x in September, up slightly from 1.01x in August.

This may suggest households are spending more on home-related and discretionary purchases during the September school holidays, as families spend more time together and begin planning for the festive periods.

## Methodology

Drawn from ShopBack's own transaction data across Singapore: in-store payments made with ShopBack Pay and online purchases made through ShopBack.

## Media use & credit

We hope you will find this monthly report a useful resource. Please feel free to use the data contained for your stories. If there is other data you’d be interested in, please let us know and we’d be happy to try and get you what you need. We can also provide insight and comments, or interviews with our spokespeople to give context to the data. All we ask is that you credit ShopBack.

## More monthly snapshots

- [October: More Travel, Smaller Bookings, Bigger Beauty Bills — October 2026](https://corporate.shopback.com/data/oct-2026) (Singapore)
- [ShopBack’s Singapore Snapshot — September 2026](https://corporate.shopback.com/data/sep-2026) (Singapore)

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Source: ShopBack Data — September 2026 Singapore Snapshot. Interactive version: https://corporate.shopback.com/data/sep-2026