Amazon have launched Prime in Singapore offering free delivery on millions of products along with streaming media benefits. The site is operated by Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings Private Limited.
This will largely be of interest to merchants who sell on Amazon.com, as Prime Singapore offers free 2-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items but more importantly free international delivery on millions more items from Amazon US.
So long as orders are $60 or more, Singapore Prime subscribers will be able to order a choice from over 5 million items shipped from Amazon US. To encourage sign ups the Singapore Prime membership advertised at $8.99 per month will be reduced to $2.99 for a limited time, although Amazon haven’t yet indicated how long the discount will last.
Amazon had been offering 2-hour delivery with Prime Now for free on orders over $40 Singapore with no membership fee, so for customers who have been using the service it’s going to appear to be a price hike. Amazon are hoping that the lure of halving the threshold for free international shipping from Amazon US to Singapore and cutting delivery times will be enough to convince Singapore customers to cough up. Shipping will now take 8 or 9 days instead of the previous 8 to 16 days.
Amazon Singapore competition
This is an interesting move by Amazon as they’re clearly targeting some 600 million Singapore residents, but they still don’t have their own Amazon country site. They’re getting Amazon Prime, but only for products that they purchase from Amazon in the US some 9,000 odd miles away.
Amazon face some stiff competition in the area including Lazada who Alibaba have taken a controlling interest in. Lazada launched their own membership scheme called ‘Live Up’, offering the fastest delivery available for free as well as a 5% rebate on every Lazada order.
What everyone in the region will want to know now is whether Amazon will launch a fully operational site for Singapore or if they’re always going to be restricted to purchasing from Amazon.com?
