Visa Launches Where You Shop Matters to Encourage Singaporeans to Support Local Merchants and SMEs to Go Digital

08/21/2020

Ninety eight percent of Singaporean consumers are planning to shop local to support small business recovery

 

 

Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, has launched Where You Shop Matters, an initiative that encourages consumers to support their local businesses, while helping SMEs to go digital following the onset of COVID-19. The initiative is part of Visa’s broader small business strategy and follows commitments the company has made to support 10 million small and micro businesses in Asia Pacific. 

As part of Where You Shop Matters, Visa will be working with Shopee to feature more than 2,000 local micro SMEs in its marketplace and create campaigns to enable Visa cardholders to enjoy discounts when they shop at these local merchants. This is in line with Shopee’s own range of support local efforts - particularly, its #SGUnited Shopee Support Local campaign.

Where You Shop Matters reinforces Visa’s commitment to supporting small businesses in this period of difficulty. The impact for these businesses caused by COVID-19 reinforced the need for Visa to launch Where You Shop Matters to support local businesses in Singapore and help them digitise. We are confident that Singaporeans will help support the local economy, especially since our study showed that 98 per cent of Singaporean consumers will purchase from local retailers to support small business recovery.1 More than half of the consumers also indicated that they will shop online more often due to the pandemic,” said Kunal Chatterjee, Visa Country Manager for Singapore & Brunei

Zhou Junjie, Chief Commercial Officer, Shopee said, “Being a homegrown company ourselves, Shopee has always been dedicated to nurturing and empowering local SMEs and entrepreneurs. This partnership further reinforces our commitment to supporting local, especially during a time where camaraderie amongst one another is key. We are excited to collaborate with Visa on this meaningful campaign and will continue doing our part to boost local businesses striving towards economic recovery as one nation.”

The Visa Study also showed that 83 per cent of Singaporean consumers believe it is important for local retailers to have an online presence.In the wake of COVID-19, the insights from this study have shown the importance for SMEs to have a digital presence and adapt with changing consumers’ behaviours in order to do well. 

“By going online, SMEs can expand their customer base, not only in Singapore, but in different countries or regions. They will join a global marketplace that can be accessed by millions of Visa cardholders around the globe,” Kunal Chatterjee added.

To encourage SMEs to go digital, Visa will be providing them with a Visa eCommerce Starter Kit to help them start, manage and grow their online storefronts. Visa is partnering with BigCommerce to provide onboarding support and special discount rates for SMEs to sign up and start selling online. SMEs can also benefit from a variety of offers including Office 365 business packages and cashback on Google Ads to help them get their online business up and running. For SMEs with physical stores, they can order free Visa POS signage to build trust with consumers

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to work closely with Visa in adopting eCommerce solutions and digital tools to help grow our business,” Deanna Chew, co-founder of Deanna’s Kitchen, said. “Not only does going digital help us to stay afloat in these difficult times, it’s given us the capacity needed to help the local community as well. We’ve prepared and donated prawn noodles to frontline healthcare staff, to show our appreciation and support for their efforts.”

 

To find out more about Where You Shop Matters, please visit visa.com.sg/whereyoushopmatters

To find out more about the #SGUnited Shopee Support Local campaign, please visit https://shopee.sg/m/shopee-support-local

 

1 A YouGov study commissioned by Visa to access Singaporeans’ support for local businesses was conducted in July 2020 on 1,106 Singaporeans aged 18-55 years of age

2 YouGov Study commissioned by Visa  

 

About Visa Inc. 

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit www.visa.com.sg