Ordering stuff online in Singapore?

Question

I'm not a local so I must be missing something, but why can't I order anything online here? From books to consumer electronics to groceries to computer parts, I can't seem to find anything online. Even information sites, such as product reviews seem very limited. Buying a car or renting a place to live looks more like a newspaper exercise than an online one.

In most of Europe and America this stuff is almost all online. Is there any reason it's not online here?

Answer 1

The many small business owners here are not willing to spend $ to engage in e-commerce service because they feel it is expenseive maintaining a website. They probably also lacks the vision to see the potential of online sales and marketing. and since their market target is local, the customer will travel short distance (singapore is a small island only) to made their purchases.

However, you might still be able to find some bigger businesses who put up items for sale online, check them up:-

a) http://www.eauction.sg/membership_login....

b) http://www.fairprice.com.sg/

c) https://www.vpost.com.sg/login.html

And as Singapore is small, travel from one end to another end of the island by car takes only 45 mins, maybe this contribute to reason why most businesses still conduct their business offline.

With Government efforts to develop Singapore to an Information Hub by year 2015 (10 year plan).. hopefully, the culture will change.

Answer 2

Sorry, I don't think Singapore has such facilities of ordering  those items you mentioned, as Singapore is a small country not like Europe or America that the companies are far located away from each other in different States. So we normally get our stuffs directly from stores as Singapore quite a convenience place to shop for our sources.

For computer parts you can drop down to Sim Lim Square located at Bugis area, where the building consists of alot of shops which specialise in I.T products.

Perhaps consumer electrical items in some company, as PC-HP, Dell etc; Sony products etc... can be order in the net. For groceries, there is supermarket like Cold Storage that you can order your groceries on net, I'm not sure about other supermarkets like Giants or NTUC whether they do have such services? Yes, car and renting houses are mostly adveristed in the newpapers.

Answer 3

their jacked up government