Mr. Anand Palit, Head of Amazon Global Selling, Southeast Asia,

Mr. Russell Chan, Principal & CEO, Nanyang Polytechnic,

Mr Tan Jek Min, Senior Director (Industry & Lifelong Learning) & Director of National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning, 

Ms. Megan Ong, Director, Singapore Institute of Retail Studies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A very good morning. Thank you for inviting me to the Amazon Global Selling Summit to witness how digital commerce empowers SMEs to access new opportunities in Singapore and beyond. 

I am pleased to see so many SMEs and industry partners here today. I am glad our SMEs are eager to capture the opportunities in e-commerce. We look forward to their future growth and transformation as they take the steps to broaden their markets outside Singapore. 

Helping our SMEs to Internationalise through E-commerce

Our SMEs form the heart of Singapore’s economy, accounting for nearly half of our nation’s GDP, 70% of our workforce, and 99% of all enterprises. The Government is firmly committed to supporting our SMEs in their growth and transformation journey. 
 
Internationalisation is a crucial strategy for SMEs to leapfrog into new worlds of growth opportunities. Given the limits of our small domestic market, SMEs that want to grow have to expand their horizons and explore overseas markets. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the dangers of relying on a single market and the importance of diversification. The shift to near-shoring also presents fresh opportunities for our SMEs as economic gravity moves to Asia. 

The borderless world of e-commerce offers significant potential for our SMEs’ expansion beyond Singapore. A recent study by research firm Access Partnership showed that if there are sufficient investments in cross-border e-commerce capabilities, revenue from B2C e-commerce exports from Singapore could more than double -  from about $1.7 billion in 2022 to $3.9 billion by 2027. This represents a compound annual growth rate of about 18%. 

In the same study, the SMEs surveyed viewed cross-border e-commerce as a critical export enabler, and that demand for online shopping will offer significant opportunities for overseas exports. 

To help our SMEs internationalise, the Government has several support schemes and initiatives:

SMEs can defray some of the costs of internationalisation with EnterpriseSG’s Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant. The funds can be used for market expansion-related services, such as Intellectual Property Protection services in North America under the Amazon IP Accelerator Program. SMEs can also tap on the Double Tax Deduction for Internationalisation (DTDi) scheme to reduce the costs of market expansion and investment development activities.

SMEs can also participate in overseas business missions and trade fairs to gain market exposure, test in-market demand and get their feet wet. For instance, EnterpriseSG brought ten Singapore lifestyle brands together last year to partner with the Showfields department store in a New York retail pop-up. This initiative allowed our local brands to meet with distributors and retailers in the US. They were able to leverage the strength of our Singapore brand and benefit from the unique collaboration.

Selling on Amazon 

Singapore enterprises are well-placed to sell to the American and global markets. EnterpriseSG has been working with Amazon to onboard Singapore sellers to Amazon.com, which serves the significant and vital US consumer market, where e-commerce revenues are forecasted to grow to over $1.2 trillion annually by 2025. SMEs pursuing an omnichannel retail strategy can tap on the Amazon platform to assess demand from the various U.S. states as they decide where to establish their retail stores. Our local companies’ strengths in branding and marketing will enable them to make a strong impression on savvy U.S. consumers.

Several of our Singapore SMEs have made great strides in selling in the US. Some of you may have heard of KeaBabies. This home-grown brand is the company behind the #1 best-selling toddler pillow and #2 baby sling carrier on Amazon US. The co-founders of KeaBabies, Jane and Ivan, started their e-commerce journey in 2017. Through Amazon, KeaBabies amassed a large pool of overseas customers, and soon, their eco-friendly baby products became popular with American parents. Today, most KeaBabies’ products are sold in U.S, Germany, and Canada.

We hope more SMEs like KeaBabies will emerge from our midst as our local brands take on the challenge of conquering new markets in cyberspace. Today’s MOU between Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and Amazon Global Selling is the right step in this direction to equip, support and spur Singapore SMEs into the world of e-commerce. 

MOU between Nanyang Polytechnic and Amazon Global Selling

The MOU will build new capabilities in our SMEs - from understanding e-commerce trends and online shopping behaviour to using new tools and platform features for e-commerce. NYP and Amazon Global Selling will, through the poly’s Singapore Institute of Retail Studies:
Conduct training workshops and courses to help SMEs build and jumpstart their businesses on Amazon;
Collaborate in activities such as overseas product sourcing, study mission trips, outreach and knowledge sessions, and
To jointly collaborate on other initiatives in Singapore, aimed at continually engaging entrepreneurs, SMEs and other relevant stakeholders to promote e-commerce continually. 

These plans will boost our SMEs’ presence and activities in e-commerce. I am heartened by this collaboration, which strengthens the links of tech leaders like Amazon with our local ecosystem.  I am confident that we can look forward to seeing more of our home-grown Singapore brands scaling new heights in global markets.   

Conclusion

To all the Amazon Global Selling Summit participants, I wish you a fruitful time of learning and networking. To all SMEs, I wish you every success in your internationalisation and e-commerce journey. Thank you.