Singapore — Only 12% of Singapore’s e-commerce sellers are currently operating without major challenges, underscoring the intense pressures facing businesses in one of Southeast Asia’s most advanced digital markets, even as signs of resilience begin to emerge.
According to a new report by consumer research firm Milieu Insight, the remaining 88% of sellers continue to grapple with rising logistics costs, tougher competition from overseas sellers and growing customer expectations around fast delivery and seamless refunds.
Logistics has emerged as the most immediate threat to performance, with delivery delays, damaged parcels and inconsistent pricing directly contributing to lost revenue, higher refund rates and negative customer reviews.
“In a market as advanced as Singapore’s, resilience is about consistently meeting buyer expectations,” said Juda Kanaprach, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Milieu Insight.
“Our findings show that sellers do best when platform support, logistics, and regulations work well together. Strong customer experience, reliable delivery, and good support systems now define competitive advantage. The next phase of growth is about extending these strengths across the ecosystem to build trust and long-term competitiveness,” Kanaprach added.
The study found that long-term resilience is increasingly shaped by buyer trust and operational reliability, with sellers placing greater emphasis on easy returns, delivery assurance and authenticity checks.
Milieu Insight also underscored that sustained growth will depend on closer alignment between platforms, policymakers, and sellers to scale resilience more evenly across Singapore’s high-expectation e-commerce ecosystem.
