The Great Singapore Sale has been and gone for another year, and we’ll admit that it wasn’t one of the greatest. We went out, we shopped, we put it on our shopping bonus credit card for the rebates and loyalty points, and we paid the whole balance off at the end of the month, and we hope you did the same.

Yes, we know it’s an event made up to draw tourists and their lovely dollars to our island to keep our stores rammed full of customers in the middle of the year, but you just can’t help getting caught up in it. Eight weeks of GSS bargains, and you sort of feel kind of jaded at the end of it. And what do you do for the other ten months of the year, after from Christmas sale shopping, spring sale shopping, and all the other sales?

Despite reports that GSS 2014 was a bit of a let-down for retailers, MasterCard say that there was still an 11% growth in spending on its cards during GSS this year. MasterCard is one of GSS’s official partners, so they’re bound to look toward the positives, but any rise in credit card and shopping spends shows confidence returning to the retail sector that can only be good for jobs.

Singapore Retailers Association President Jannie Chan told Channel News Asia: “After a relatively muted first few months of the year due to challenging retail conditions, the pick-up in spending by Singapore and visiting MasterCard cardholders during the Great Singapore Sale is certainly encouraging for our industry.”

The experience from this year’s Great Singapore Sale tells us that we’ve turned a corner when it comes to consumer spending. People in Singapore are joining visitors in using their credit cards to make luxury purchases, and that was something that was in the doldrums for the last couple of years. Why not visit Enjoy Compare, find a premium credit card that suits your lifestyle and join the returning shops boom?