Singapore Offers Financial Help For SMB Retailers To Go Online

Singapore is offering funds and manpower to help small and midsize business (SMB) retailers kickstart their e-commerce journey, pledging to buffer 90% of the cost for doing so. It hopes the boost will urge more retailers to adapt to the online model and expand their revenue and sales channels beyond traditional brick-and-mortar. 

Enterprise Singapore on Thursday unveiled a new "E-commerce Booster Package" to assist SMBs with little or no e-commerce experience in their digital transformation. This was particularly critical amidst the ongoing pandemic where more consumers were staying home and turning to online channels. 

The government agency said it was working with four e-commerce operators--Lazada Singapore, Qoo10, Shopee, and Amazon--to offer assistance to retailers in reaching local consumers. 

SMBs would be able to tap any one of the four online marketplaces to sell their products as well as services offered by the platforms, including content development, product listing, channel management, fulfilment services, and advertising. The e-commerce operators would help the SMBs curate and list products for up to six months, run promotion campaigns, fulfil orders, and carry out basic sales data analytics.

Successful applicants also would receive a one-time financial support to offset 90% of eligible costs, not exceeding SG$9,000 ($5,092), for up to six months. To apply, they must be registered or incorporated businesses in Singapore, have at least 30% of shareholders that are local, with an annual turnover not more than SG$100 million ($56.58 million) per year, and employ no more than 200. 

SMBs also would be able to reach overseas markets through Enterprise Singapore's existing Multichannel E-commerce Platform programme, which now offered a higher one-time support covering 90% of eligible costs, up from the previous 70%. This would be available until September 30. 

In addition, SMBs would receive extra manpower support via the booster package, which would offset 90% of eligible manpower costs for three months. Such manpower resources encompassed support to help the retailers identify new sources of demand as well as streamline processes to ensure online operations could be sustained in the long run. 

Enterprise Singapore's deputy CEO Ted Tan said: "It is more crucial now for retailers to diversify revenue streams by using e-commerce channels. The E-Commerce Booster Package primarily helps retailers with little e-commerce knowledge and capabilities to start using online channels. 

"Our partnership with the established e-commerce platforms both in Singapore and overseas ensures a good-sized market for these retailers to tap. We want to empower all retailers to develop long-term and sustainable e-commerce strategies that will ensure business resilience beyond COVID-19," Tan said. 

The Southeast Asian e-commerce sector was estimated to be worth $38 billion, compared to just $5.5 billion in 2015, and home to more than 150 million online shoppers, according to the 2019 e-Conomy Southeast Asia report released by Google, Temasek Holdings. The region's biggest and fastest growing sector, e-commerce was projected to expand to $150 billion by 2025.

RedMart reorgs logistics to cope with surge in demand from COVID-19

Meanwhile, in a separate announcement Thursday, Singapore-based online grocery store RedMart said it had stopped taking orders to rejig its logistics and operations. A subsidiary of Lazada, which is owned by Alibaba, RedMart said it had experienced a surge in orders amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. 

To cope with the increase in orders, it was making changes to its "product assortment" and updating its system to introduce several new measures. 

RedMart said: "We will be temporarily reducing our assortment range [to] prioritise daily essentials  such as rice, flour, and eggs. Delivery slots will now be assigned based on your location and temporarily limited to specific days and times for each address."

It added that it was limiting orders to up to 35 items, while orders exceeding 100kg would be subject to cancellation. It also was removing a feature that enabled customers to add items to orders that had been placed. 

Furthermore, deliveries would be left at the doorstep to minimise contact, which meant customers would have to stand ready to collect their order when they received a notification SMS, especially if their orders contained products that needed refrigeration. 

RedMart said it would resume taking new orders from April 4.

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