Data on Online Retail Transactions

Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Trade) (a) whether the Ministry collates data on online retail sales for local and foreign e-commerce; (b) if so, what is the sales volume transacted by Singapore-based residents with foreign companies via e-commerce over the past three years; (c) how has this overseas e-commerce impacted on local businesses; and (d) what is the Ministry doing to help local e-commerce businesses to improve their sales.

The Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Sim Ann) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry)): The Government tracks internet transactions made with locally-issued credit and debit cards. Over the past three years, the total value of such transactions with local entities was about $18.3 billion, representing around 74% of total Internet transactions. Internet transactions with foreign entities amounted to $6.4 billion.

About 3% of total retail receipts in Singapore comes from e-commerce. While e-commerce presents competition to our local retailers, it also gives Singapore retailers the opportunity to expand their reach to the region and beyond. Under the Retail Industry Transformation Map (ITM) launched in September 2016, we aim to grow the e-commerce share of total retail receipts to 10% by 2020. This is in line with the retail ITM vision for a vibrant retail industry comprising a mix of highly productive omni-channel retailers and local brand owners with global footprints.

The Government will assist local retailers to build digital capabilities and enable access to e-marketplaces under the Retail ITM. As part of the SMEs Go Digital initiative launched at Budget 2017, SPRING and IMDA have pre-qualified e-commerce solutions that can be readily adopted by SMEs. In collaboration with partners like Google, SPRING also provides support to SMEs to strengthen their digital marketing. IE Singapore also helps companies leverage e-commerce to unlock growth opportunities in overseas markets. Besides support through the Market Readiness Assistance scheme and the Global Company Partnership scheme, IE Singapore connects companies to global, regional or niche e-marketplaces that are relevant to their internationalisation strategies.

Trade Associations and Chambers (TACs) are also important multipliers to accelerate e-commerce adoption among SMEs. For example, the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), with the support of SPRING and Workforce Singapore, is developing an SME e-Commerce Accelerator Programme to help retailers build integrated strategic plans for omni-channel implementation.

Besides TACs, we have also seen greater participation from the private sector in supporting our SMEs. The 99% SME movement is a national initiative led by SingTel, DBS and Mediacorp. Initiated in 2015, the effort makes e-commerce accessible to more companies through the set-up of an e-marketplace and offering training opportunities.

The Government also helps members of the retail industry workforce adapt and upskill to keep up with developments in e-commerce. To support this, SPRING has worked with SkillsFuture Singapore to develop a Skills Framework for the Retail sector incorporating e-commerce and digital marketing, which will be launched later this year.

Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Mdm Speaker, thank you. I would like to thank Senior Minister of State for the answer but one of the reasons why I am asking this question is in relation to this report by VISA several weeks ago highlighting that online transactions in Singapore has actually more than doubled in the past five years. And it accounts for about 25% of total spending on VISA cards in Singapore.

In relation to what she mentioned just now about public entities' data in relation to online spending, I would just like to enquire first, whether that data is actually public and if there is a longer time series to asses that, for analysts to assess and to assess Singapore's private consumption, to assess also Singapore's Gross Domestic Product growth going forward. One of the reasons why I ask is, at the moment I think it is not readily available in public whereas if you see in the US and in China it is readily available. It could be because of various reasons but I would like to hear the Senior Minister of State's response to that.

On top of that, in terms of e-commerce data, in terms of how e-commerce data can be a bit more available to the public, going forward.

Ms Sim Ann: The data that I mentioned earlier is from MAS which tracks the e-commerce, or rather Internet transactions being made with locally issued credit cards and debit cards. Having said that, I think that gives part of the picture because the entities being tracked who are parties to the transactions may not only be retailers; it could be for instance payments for bills and so forth. Having said that, we are also aware that there are various commercial studies being done by consultants on the state of e-commerce so I would like to refer the Member to the figure that I cited earlier which is that 3% of retail receipts in Singapore are from e-commerce.

If we want to make a comparison in 2014, based on studies, we understand that e-commerce accounted for about 10%, 13% and 6.5% of total retail sales in China, the UK and the US respectively. So, this suggests that there is room for e-commerce to increase as a proportion of total retail activity in Singapore.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Zaqy Mohamed, please keep your supplementary questions short.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang): Thank you, Mdm Speaker. The analysis that the Senior Minister of State gave is really about e-commerce retail sales in Singapore. But I think the crux of the question here would be, Singaporeans are spending more, are they spending more internationally with international brand retailers compared to say, local. Are we losing out in terms of GDP for our local retailers to e-commerce? That is the key question. And do we track that?

Ms Sim Ann: As I mentioned earlier under our retail ITM, our intention is to help foster a very vibrant Singapore retail scene and we want to see strong local brand owners with global footprints. In terms of strengthening the competitiveness of Singapore-based retailers Singapore brands, vis-Ã-vis their global competitors, that is certainly a very important thrust of our work under the retail ITM. So, to this end we have various programmes and strategies in place to help our retailers improve their capabilities. Part of this would involve omni-channel capability building, it also involves up-skilling the workforce so that our retailers will be able to draw on expertise who understand how to operate an e-commerce environment.

But I think this also involves, generally speaking, profiling Singapore brands in a variety of retail sectors. This is indeed a very challenging area but it is certainly a challenge that we recognise and which we are preparing our retailers for.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Leon Perera. Keep it short, very brief. Because your supplementary questions are longer than your original questions.

Mr Leon Perera (Non-Constituency Member): Just a question to the Senior Minister of State, will the Ministry consider tracking and publishing retail sales and e-commerce sales data regularly, as the Senior Minister of State alluded to, it is been done in the US and China, in the future since this may be very important for stakeholders to understand.

Ms Sim Ann: Certainly, as I mentioned, I believe that quite a number of such studies and figures are available being done by different organisations. These are all figures that we track because we do want to benchmark ourselves against the retail scene in different countries and to see where we stand. So, this is something we will constantly do.