To deal with the disruption caused by Covid-19, Singapore businesses are moving more of their business online. Even smaller and medium-sized businesses, who were less likely to go online before the pandemic, had to rethink how they would operate. There was a bit of hesitation, even pre-Covid, when it came to adopting some of these strategies. They'll say no, it takes too much time. It takes a lot resources, a lot investments," Selena Ling (chief economist at OCBC bank), told CNBC. She said that the mindset has changed over the past 12-15 months. "But I think it's a do-or-die" approach.Many businesses, even those of smaller size, had to adapt to the digital model. Selena Ling, chief economist at OCBC bankSingapore's government placed a "circuit breaker" on the internet, which is a partial lockdown that requires most people to stay at home and work in order to slow down the spread of the virus during the peak of last year's pandemic. Ling explained that many manufacturers and retailers couldn't open physical stores because of this. Ling said that many businesses, even the smaller ones, had to change to this digital model. She said that a lot of policy support was geared towards helping smaller businesses adopt a digital strategy.LazadaJames Chang, CEO at Lazada Singapore, agreed with her sentiments that the pandemic had driven many local brands and smaller online players to adapt to the changes. "Actually, the pandemic drove many e-commerce adoptions. Three areas are: "Many brands went online, and many SMEs have started their business online," he stated. This refers to small- and mid-sized businesses. "Buyer adoption has really accelerated."A vibrant ecosystemLazada, Southeast Asia's largest online retailer, is currently working with SMEs to expand their e-commerce business in the city. The entry cost for an entrepreneur is prohibitively high. Chang stated that if we can lower the entry barrier, we can foster and energize a vibrant entrepreneurial scene which can be the foundational pillar for bringing more SMEs to do business.One of the great things about Singapore is to create a favorable financing environment for young companies starting up. Bain Futures chairman James Root, senior partnerSince Covid-19, the Singapore government has provided lots of support for domestic businesses in pushing digital agendas. "I believe Singapore has been very supportive of both small and large enterprises, particularly during macro-economic shifts like Covid. Henry Chan, cofounder and CEO of ShopBack, a local e-commerce company in Singapore, stated that the local government was very supportive with wage grants and helping to retrain or scale.
