With the introduction of the internet into the daily life of most people worldwide and its fast and speedy growth in the last decade, electronic commerce has now become an increasing reality. Ecommerce has increasingly begun to be seen by millions of users around the world as a viable option to reduce the cost of running their business, but at the same time to increase productivity.
In Singapore, the government has positioned itself and its country to take an active role in the setting up and establishment of robust e-commerce infrastructure. To promote and facilitate the growth of the e-commerce industry, the government has fired up various initiatives to help online retailers and the various e-commerce companies looking to set up or expand their services be able to do so. Here’s how:
Retail Industry Transformation Map
Initially, e-commerce and online retailing were viewed as competition for physical retailing. However, in Singapore, the national approach is quite opposite. The Singapore government is determined to grow and nurture the retail industry. Consequently, in the year 2016, the government launched a Retail Industry Transformation Map, also known as the Retail ITM.
This Retail ITM has as its agenda key strategies that are used to support agility, technology, and innovation adoption efforts within the retail sector in the country. Under this Retail Industry Transformation Map, two authorities, Enterprise Singapore and Infocomm Media Development Authority have nurtured various initiatives to develop two key areas:
- 1. Integrated digital ecosystem participation and Omnichannel retail for brick and mortar retailers. For example, the launch of the 99% SME collaboration project. This is an e-commerce platform for business-to-business retailers, which makes it possible for small and medium enterprise retailers to have and create an online presence to sell their services and goods, order fulfillment services as well as facilitate payment. The initiative is intended to help not less than 10,000 small and medium enterprises to accelerate and or jump start their digital transformation.
- 2. Enhancing personalized and immersive customer experiences in various brick and mortar retail locations with the help of a wide variety of technologies such as robotics augmented reality and sensors.
The main aim of this Retail ITM is to jump-start more and more brick and mortar retailers into online retailing and eCommerce to create a competitive and vibrant digital marketplace within the country’s borders. This means that if you are looking to expand or enhance the digital footprint of your online retailing business you are free to take advantage of these collaboration projects within the Retail Industry Transformation Map.
Action Community For Entrepreneurship
The Action Community For Entrepreneurship, also known as ACE, is a privately led function that was set up within Singapore in the year 2014. It is specifically intended to help e-commerce small and medium enterprises to develop industry-specific skills and expand their network. The ACE has been grown into what is now a network of professionals, capitalists, and entrepreneurs whose aim is to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in Singapore in three areas:
- 1. By providing an access hub in which SMEs in Singapore are connected to talent providers, funding, and technology.
- 2. Access to clinics, workshops, and consultancies that offer advisory services on internationalization and scaling to the country’s small and medium enterprises.
- 3. It also provides a platform that makes it possible for Singapore’s enterprises and SMEs to co-innovate together.
Some of the programs offered by this ACE include mentorship and networking programs, accounting workshops, legal clinics, and a youth chapter.
The ACE has also set up an International Center, which is simply put as a one-stop-shop to support the country’s small and medium enterprises in international expansion and international growth. This center makes it possible for Singapore’s SMEs to connect to partners, networks, overseas markets, and tailored programs of their choosing.
This means that if you are looking to venture into e-commerce within Singapore, you can make use of the industry and support network that is provided by the ACE to strengthen your capacity and expand your online presence.
National Trade Platform
For any e-commerce venture to thrive, trade facilitation is a key component. However, there are various legacy systems and regulations which if left on their own, hamper the efficiency of e-commerce.
The National Trade Platform, therefore, is a platform that makes it possible for businesses in Singapore to reuse and share documents and data between themselves and the government and among their business partners.
This platform aids eCommerce businesses in Singapore to reduce inefficiencies of a physical trade and streamline processes. It also makes it possible for third-party service providers to advertise and provide their digital services to the various National Trade Platform account holders.
One benefit to Singapore’s SMEs is that the NTP helps to reduce the need to handle custom checks. This goes a long way to help e-commerce businesses to save money and time, which in turn speeds up the time of deliveries and increases the levels of customer satisfaction.
SkillsFuture Skills Framework for Retail
Another key component to the success of any e-commerce company is the availability of skilled talent. The more knowledgeable your staff is, the higher the rate of company productivity, and customer satisfaction. Having skilled talent attached to your company will also contribute mightily to giving your business the necessary push to stand out from amongst your competition.
However, skilled talent will mean having a set of employees trained and competent in areas such as digital resource management, data analysis, and content development. Therefore to help the small and medium enterprises be able to access such kinds of skilled talent, the government has expanded the national training agency to include an online retailing specific skills framework.
This training agency has various specialized training courses that are designed to train new entrants in omnichannel and e-commerce retail sectors. By utilizing these skill maps and training programs, the country’s small and medium enterprises that are venturing into the field of e-commerce will be able to identify the skills needed for the success of their companies and even invest in training their employees in these areas if they choose to.
This article is contributed by InCorp Global Pte Ltd.
