Initial Thoughts

The world is integrating through globalization, and what is a simpler, cheaper, better way to promote your thoughts, your ideas, your business to every corner of the earth that has access to internet than the internet itself? E-commerce is growing at a frenetic pace, and it will be undoubtedly the way of doing businesses in the future.

Many countries have ventured into online business with success; take US and Taiwan as good examples. China is picking up and projected to be the powerhouse of e-commerce in the near future. The China Internet Network Information Center said the number of internet users in the world's most populous country jumped 28.9% in 2009 to 384 million, which is more than the entire population of the U.S. Imagine the potentials you are exposed to by adding in e-commerce platform to your business?

In Singapore context, we are lagging far behind many countries in terms of market size and scope. The interesting thing is that with the 2008 statistics from iDA, compiled by Department of Statistics (DOS), 80% of the population has computer access at home, and 76% of the population has access to internet. Singapore's population is nearing 5 millions, so do the math yourself. Yet the e-commerce penetration is still very low, why?

In my opinion, consumers here are still skeptical doing shopping online. The fear of credit card frauds, inferior products, dishonest companies, missing shipments just to name a few are the biggest deterrents. I will share more regarding this topic in my further posts, backed by my own experience. Nonetheless, sooner or later, Singapore is going to board the flagship as well and this is definitely a good thing to start.

My vision for this non-profit group is to raise the awareness of e-commerce, and to help, as well as guide aspiring entrepreneurs in Singapore the way of doing businesses the e-commerce way. Anything from incorporating with ACRA and the documentation, to deciding between e-commerce softwares, to domain and hosting selection, to accounting methods and many more other issues associated.

I hope that as this support group grows, more and more successful entrepreneurs can join in to provide advices for new SMEs and work together to eliminate the fear of the consumers here in Singapore. It can be overwhelming with the complexity and dynamics of e-business, and hopefully through this group, i can providing those with the passion and determination to be successful the advices and guidance.

Many people has the inspiration to start a business, but only a handful have the courage to actually do it and an even smaller percentage will be successful. Let's learn together.

Please feel free to email me at edmundshen@gmail.com and i will do my best to answer your queries.