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| Source: Singtel. Giving the thumbs up to the 99% SME Shopping Week 2017, from left: Ted Tan, Deputy Chief Executive, SPRING Singapore; Yeo Hiang Meng, President, Federation of Merchants’ Association of Singapore; Joyce Tee, MD & Group Head, SME Banking, DBS Bank; Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth; Andrew Lim, MD, Business Group, Group Enterprise, Singtel and Parminder Singh, Chief Commercial and Digital Officer, Mediacorp. Mediacorp is the official media partner for the event. |
Singtel and DBS gave small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) a boost with the launch of Singapore’s only annual shopping event to rally support for SMEs’ businesses. The third 99% SME Shopping Week was officially launched by the Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Sim Ann in the HDB heartlands, at Toa Payoh Central.
This year’s event drew a record 5,500-plus SMEs, more than doubling last year’s 2,600 participants. The 10-day event allows consumers in Singapore to enjoy in-store and online offers and discounts from 20 October to 29 October.
“The growing interest of SMEs to embrace digitalisation reflects the importance of transforming brick and mortar enterprises as traditional businesses face the risk of getting disrupted by innovative technologies,” said Andrew Lim, MD, Business Group, Group Enterprise at Singtel. “This unique event helps to connect SMEs across Singapore so that collectively, we help them to achieve a higher level of consumer awareness and visibility.
“With the advent of the digital economy and online shopping, SMEs can harness the resources of the 99% SME movement to transform and digitalise their operations for greater productivity and market reach. Through the event, SMEs can leverage the marketing resources of the 99% SME movement partners and experience the benefit of going online to complement their brick-and-mortar stores,” he added.
Joyce Tee, Group Head of SME Banking, DBS Bank said: “SMEs are the backbone of the Singapore economy and they are always inspired to innovate for practical reasons as consumption patterns change. In recent years, they have been adopting e-commerce and cashless payment solutions to offer their shoppers greater ease of payment and a better shopping experience. DBS is delighted to help SMEs widen their customer reach by comarketing their products and services to the Bank’s customers. This in-turn allows SMEs to tap into Singapore’s largest customer base and DBS’ customers to benefit from unparalleled discounts only found online during the 99% SME campaign.”
Every S$20 shoppers spend with a participating company during the 99% SME Shopping Week will give them a chance to enter a lucky draw. The top prize is a pair of air tickets to Tokyo. Other prizes include the latest Samsung gadgets, Huawei smart watches and shopping credits worth up to S$100 on the 99% SME eMarketplace, an e-commerce site is hosted by online retailer Lazada. Singtel post-paid mobile subscribers will also enjoy 1GB of mobile data for a month when they spend a minimum of S$9.90 at any participating SME.
The 99% SME Shopping Week caps a year-long series of initiatives to help SMEs transform and digitalise their operations. One of these was Singtel’s partnership with Temasek Polytechnic to help SMEs in traditional trades go online and use digital technology. The polytechnic’s business students have helped more than 150 SMEs to go online, establish e-commerce capabilities and market themselves more effectively.
One of the beneficiaries has been Singapore’s oldest Chinese restaurant, Spring Court, established in 1929. The students helped the third generation of the founding family to list their offerings on the 99% SME portal to engage a new base of online customers.
Singtel also partnered Nanyang Polytechnic - Singapore Institute of Retail Studies (SIRS) to help SMEs hire digital professionals. This collaboration also benefits professionals who gain re-employment after acquiring new skills for the digital economy. To date, about 500 SMEs have registered their interest to hire digital professionals to help them manage their digital transformation.
Beyond getting SMEs online, Singtel has partnered online retailer Lazada to create the 99% SME e-marketplace for SMEs to engage in e-commerce. About 400 SMEs have registered on the e-marketplace through the 99% SME movement.
For SMEs participating in 99% SME Shopping Week, Singtel has conducted 25 workshops where more than 700 SMEs have learnt to leverage IT solutions, online marketing and cyber security to operate safely in the digital domain.
The 99% SME Shopping Week is organised by the 99% SME movement, co-founded by Singtel and DBS. The movement is named after the fact that SMEs make up 99% of businesses in Singapore. They are also unsung heroes which also employ 70% of Singapore’s workforce and contribute nearly half of Singapore's GDP. The movement helps SMEs become stronger together with a common platform to showcase products and services. The 99%SME eMarketplace, a dedicated portal hosted on Lazada.sg for small businesses to advertise their offerings and reach out to up to 4.5 million visitors a month, is a new feature this year that lets businesses conduct online transactions immediately.
Since its inception in 2015, the movement has been gaining traction and this year added new partners like AXA Insurance, Brother, Far East, Google, Huawei, Lazada, Mastercard and Samsung. The group also counts SPRING Singapore, industry associations, grassroots organisations and polytechnic schools among its supporters.
