Tag: SME Campaign

Singapore – As International Women’s Day (IWD) draws near, the Singapore arm of e-commerce giant Amazon has launched a dedicated storefront which will feature local products from women-owned SMEs.

The storefront will showcase stories and products offered by 12 women-owned businesses over the next 4 weeks – from craft supplies to baby and maternity essentials. Starting today, customers can read more about the journey and motivations of the featured entrepreneurs, shop their offerings on Amazon.sg, and enjoy promotions on selected products as part of the IWD celebration.

Some of the featured owners include Yvon Bock, founder of baby and maternity lifestyle brand Hegen; Beth Candice Wu, founder of local gift company and social enterprise HoneySpree; Pauline Ng, founder of cult-premium skincare brand Porcelain, and Suzanne Vetillart, CEO of sustainable handcrafted jewelry brand Boma Jewelry. 

For Bernard Tay, country leader at Amazon.sg for seller services, and head of Amazon Global Selling for Southeast Asia, women are a critical force for Singapore’s economic progress, and the growth of their businesses fuels its collective success.

“At Amazon, we are committed to offering equal opportunities for all sellers to help them unleash their entrepreneurial potential, regardless of their gender and background. Amazon is proud to mark this year’s International Women’s Day by celebrating the resilience of women entrepreneurs and showcasing their success stories,” Tay said.

He added, “We hope that their experiences will resonate with other entrepreneurs, encouraging them to #ChooseToChallenge gender conventions and grow their businesses globally with us.”

Amazon Singapore is also teaming up with Enterprise Singapore to help local retailers, including women-run businesses, sell online and scale globally. Through the  Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) scheme by Enterprise Singapore, entrepreneurs can avail of a maximum S$100k grant per new country they expand to, for up to 70% of eligible costs for overseas promotion, overseas business development, and overseas country set up. 

This then allows female entrepreneurs to avail tools and resources to sell online with Amazon.sg, expand their business across Amazon’s 20 stores worldwide, and reach more customers anywhere.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As Malaysian businesses have faced unprecedented challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Malaysian arm of Grab has stated its commitment to partners by lowering commissions for SMEs and encouraging Malaysians to support ‘Local Heroes’, Grab’s local campaign to SMEs.

In a statement, Sean Goh, managing director of Grab Malaysia said that the company remains to give more awareness to its partners and neighborhood businesses by focusing on merchant partner support and affordable rates for daily needs such as ordering food and grocery shopping.

“With the new SOPs for businesses and eateries, we are initiating several support measures to help our merchant partners cope especially with the loss of dine-in customers, while ensuring the community still can access their daily needs safely, conveniently, and affordably,” Goh stated.

Since the country has implemented its movement control order (MCO) for this year, Grab has reduced maximum commissions charged to any merchant partner by up to 5% for all Food and Mart merchants nationwide for four full weeks, from January 13 till February 10, 2021 to help merchants earn more. Grab is also reducing its commission ceiling to 25%.

Furthermore, Grab is implementing a temporary reduction commission to restaurant partners to zero percent if customers choose to pick up their orders themselves, effective January 13 to February 10, 2021.

With regards to Grab’s ‘Local Heroes’ campaign, the awareness campaign saw an increase in sales of up to 43%, and is hoped to help generate awareness for our local heroes in these difficult times.

“Additionally, with our revamped GrabMerchant platform, merchants will also have more autonomy to manage their online store especially if they are running out of supplies or are unable to cope with the orders. Moreover, our partners can also leverage social media channels to promote their products and services with a self-generated personalized link to their store via their GrabMerchant app,” Goh added.

Other Grab offerings include delivery fees for as low as 50 cents, one delivery fee for ‘mix and match’ order from food courts, unlimited free delivery for ‘Signature’ restaurants, and 40% points back for any Food, Mart or Express vouchers redeemed at GrabRewards.