The news of Amazon’s impending arrival in Singapore was a momentous announcement that sent shockwaves through the online shopping faithful who have been ardent customers of the site.
Many were looking forward to it, and with the revelation that Amazon was actively hiring, as well as securing warehouse and office space in Singapore, it was thought that it was more or less a done deal.
Well maybe not.
Amazon’s Singapore Adventure Has Been Delayed
Today, TechCrunch revealed that while Amazon indeed is still coming into the Singapore market, the schedule to actually start operations here has been delayed.
It seems that the actual date will still remain a mystery, with the plans being a closely-guarded secret that isn’t even openly known to Amazon staff in Southeast Asia.
One factor mentioned for the delay is that the groundwork for creating a local entity in Singapore is taking longer than anticipated.
With Singapore being an e-commerce friendly nation that has a very high internet penetration, and where a high density of the population owns a credit card, Amazon is definitely not shelving its plans to set up shop.
Australia Could Be First Instead
In other Amazon news, it seems that the company may instead speed up its entry into Australia.
It’s the same story over there as it is in Singapore – massive hiring of staff and local warehousing. Amazon’s entry into the Pacific is expected to have an impact on both local brick-and-mortar and e-commerce platforms in Australia, though analysts expect that there will not be a price war despite expectations of lower prices on Amazon.
Unfortunately, the clash of the titans between Amazon and Alibaba isn’t going to happen anytime soon in Singapore.
While we wait for Amazon to arrive in Singapore, catch up on some shows over at Amazon Prime that fortunately, Singaporeans can access.