Expanding your business to overseas markets holds the promise of tapping new revenue streams to grow your market share. In Singapore, where the domestic market size may pose limitations, businesses recognise the significance of venturing beyond local shores. The recent acceleration of e-commerce adoption has presented a unique opportunity for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to explore opportunities in large international markets like the United States.
Findings from a study titled “Local Sellers, Global Consumers: Capturing the e-commerce export opportunity in Singapore” reveal that Singapore firms could potentially double the value of their business-to-consumers (B2C) e-commerce overseas sales from S$1.7 billion in 2022 to S$3.9 billion by 2027 if they invested in cross-border commerce.
One e-commerce platform that can help with your expansion efforts is Amazon Global Selling, which has a physical presence in 22 countries and ships to around 200 countries and territories. It recently also launched the Amazon Global Selling Singapore Cross-Border Brand Launchpad Program to help MSMEs with their overseas expansion efforts.
What Is The Amazon Global Selling Singapore Cross-Border Brand Launchpad Program
The Amazon Global Selling Singapore Cross-Border Brand Launchpad Program, launched by Amazon Global Selling in collaboration with Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), equips local entrepreneurs with cross-border e-commerce skills and helps them access opportunities in the US market via the Amazon platform. The program which runs over a two-year period is open for registration to initial batch of 100 eligible local MSMEs.
Through the program, MSMEs would receive support in areas such as advisory on business growth and solutions, optimisation of marketing and analytics tools, and know-how on achieving product standards certification in line with local regulations.
Additionally, the program would cover a learning series that includes key topics such as introduction to cross-border e-commerce business model, solutions to tackle common global e-commerce challenges, and relevant digital economy skills such as product selection and preparation, performance optimisation, cross-border logistics, and more.
While the program is open to all enterprises with North American expansion plans through Amazon, an ideal profile could be:
- A brand owner, producer or manufacturer who has registered its own Trademark;
- Has resources set aside for international expansion, especially in North America (including Compliance, ready inventory, willingness to invest in brand-building resources overseas)
- Has products that are suitable to sell on Amazon.com (not frozen/fresh products).
Enterprises that are interested to join the program can register through this link.
Steps To Start Selling To Overseas Markets Via Amazon Global Selling
If you’re keen on setting up an online presence for your business, whether to sell locally or internationally, you can follow these steps to open an Amazon Seller account.
Step 1: Choose Between Two Selling Plans
Before you register for an Amazon Global Selling account, you need to decide on the selling plan that is suitable for your business needs.
You have a choice of two selling plans: the Individual plan, which costs US$0.99 per sale, and the Professional plan, which costs US$39.99 per month.
The Individual plan might be suitable if you are just starting your e-commerce business and sell fewer than 40 items a month. However, it also means you will have limited access to the advanced tools or programs that you could get with the Professional plan. Otherwise, the Professional plan would be the preferred option for most businesses. Regardless, you can switch your selling plan at anytime giving you the flexibility to change depending on your business needs.
Step 2: Documents To Prepare For Registration Of Account
Once you have decided on your selling plan, it’s best to prepare the following documents to complete your account registration smoothly:
- Bank account number and bank routing number
- Chargeable credit card
- Government issued national ID
- Tax information
- Phone number
Step 3: Listing Your Products On The Amazon Platform
Once you have setup your account and become familiar with the various tools available on Amazon Seller Central, you need to create a product listing to begin selling your products on Amazon. Typically, products must have a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), such as a UPC, an ISBN, or an EAN.
You could match with an existing listing (if someone else is already selling the same product on Amazon), in which case you don’t need to provide a product ID since it already exists. Otherwise, if you’re the first and only seller, you need to create a new listing. In this case, you may need to purchase a UPC code or request an exemption.
Along with your product ID, you also need to input the product’s SKU, keep your product title to a maximum of 200 words, have a product description and keep your bullet points short with descriptive sentences highlighting key features and benefits, provide a variation of product images, and think about the search terms and relevant keywords for each product listing to improve the chances that people will find your listing.
An advantage of the Professional selling plan is that you have the option of listing your products in large batches using bulk uploading or inventory management with third-party systems. On the other hand, if you’re on the Individual selling plan, you can only list products one at a time.
Step 4: Advertising And Marketing Of Your Products
You could leverage the various tools on Amazon Seller Central to manage your sales and review marketing efforts. Additionally, Amazon also offers three advertising solutions accessible via Amazon Seller Central to reach and engage your customers.
These are:
- (1) Sponsored products: These are ad placements for individual product listings to drive sales. They would appear on search results pages and product details pages.
- (2) Sponsored brands: These are ad placements for your brand and product portfolio to help drive brand visibility. They would appear as search-result ads.
- (3) Amazon stores: These act as a storefront for your individual product listings and share your brand story.
You could also create promotions and coupons for customers to incentivise them to purchase from you. Some of these promotions include money-off, free shipping, and buy-one-get-one-free.
Read Also: Step-By-Step Guide To Start Your E-commerce Business On Shopee (In Under An Hour)
Step 5: Delivering Products
Lastly, you need to decide how to deliver your products to your customers. You could choose to do it yourself (merchant fulfilment), where you maintain your own inventory and ship to customers, or let Amazon handle the whole process, from packaging, labelling, and shipping of the products through Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).
While you can have more control over your inventory and delivery method with merchant fulfilment, it also means you may have to deal with packaging, customer service, and product returns yourself. The shipping rates are determined by Amazon based on the product category and the shipping service selected by the customer. This fee would then be passed on to you as a shipping credit. It is important to note here that if you’re on the Individual selling plan, the set shipping rates would apply to all of your products. Therefore, you should determine your ability to price your products profitably, especially if you’re selling various items across different categories.
Alternatively, you could choose Amazon FBA and leverage its more than 175 fulfilment centres to store and handle the fulfilment of your products, including taking advantage of the automatic Prime eligibility and Free Super Saver Shipping. It also takes care of customer service and product returns so that you can focus on scaling your business. In turn, you will incur two types of FBA fees: (1) fulfilment fees (which are charged per unit sold) and (2) inventory storage fees (which are charged monthly based on the volume of inventory held in an Amazon fulfilment centre).
Tap On Various Government Grants For Your Overseas Expansion Plans
On top of utilising an e-commerce platform like Amazon, businesses can also apply for various government grants like the Market Readiness Assistance Grant and double tax deduction for internationalisation with EnterpriseSG.
With various technological accesses and government financial assistance, it’s an opportune time for MSMEs to grow their businesses beyond our local boundaries into international markets.
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