Record number of SMEs participating in online annual shopping extravaganza in Singapore

To help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to keep up with the times, a 10-day shopping event is being organised in Singapore in which they are offering various deals and promotions to consumers.

More than 5,500 local SMEs are participating, which is almost double the 2,600 which took part last year. Consumers can shop for the deals on the 99% SME’s website, which allows them to market themselves online at no cost.

More than 5,500 SMEs are participating in online annual shopping extravaganza in Singapore.
More than 5,500 SMEs are participating in online annual shopping extravaganza in Singapore. Photo: Connected to India

Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry of Singapore, launched the event at Toa Payoh Central. She said, “It is encouraging to see the campaign grow in scope and reach since its inception in 2015. I do hope that trade associations and chambers can also do more to support SMEs.”

She added, “As industry leaders, our trade associations and chambers have a key role in driving enterprise upgrading and industry transformation. I hope that more associations will step up to help identify industry pain points, aggregate needs and source for solutions in a scalable manner.”

This year, 99% SME shopping week is being organised by Singtel and DBS. The main focus of the event is to help SME digitalise amid technological disruptions, and SMEs were given resources such as e-solution, online advertising help and cashless payment solutions by DBS.

Andrew Lim, managing director of Singtel’s group enterprise, said, “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.”

99% SME Shopping Week is being organised from October 20 to 29. For every SGD20 spent with a participating company, shoppers get a chance to enter a lucky draw in which the top prize is a pair of plane tickets to Tokyo.