Contact Information and Sales Manager Must Be Specified on the Site
Customs Fees and Additional Surcharges for Returns Must Also Be Indicated
[Asia Economy Singapore Correspondent Seo Jumi] From now on, overseas sellers conducting e-commerce sales in Singapore must clearly specify additional surcharge fees and customer service hours for returns. Koreans selling goods through Singapore's largest online shopping mall, Qoo10, should take note.
According to local media including The Straits Times on the 30th, the Singapore Standards Council (SSC), in collaboration with Enterprise Singapore (ESG), a government agency responsible for corporate strategy, recently introduced the e-commerce standard TR76. TR76 covers the entire e-commerce process including purchase, payment, delivery, product tracking, and returns, as well as customer support cases.
E-commerce companies are required to clearly indicate the sales manager’s contact information on their websites to prevent fraud and identify low-quality sellers, and to provide accurate descriptions and information about advertised products. Prices must include taxes such as customs clearance fees so consumers can be fully informed, and information on fees and additional surcharges for returns must be provided in advance. Additionally, expected customer support response times and business hours must be clearly stated. The council stated that this will serve as a practical reference standard for intermediaries such as online marketplaces.
This measure was introduced due to the increase in disputes accompanying the recent growth in online transactions. Singapore receives many overseas shipments from countries including Korea, China, and Japan. From January to March this year, e-commerce-related crime cases in Singapore totaled 1,159, more than double the 536 cases during the same period last year. The amount of damages also surged from SGD 469,000 to SGD 1.3 million during the same period.
The Singapore government is accelerating policies to help retailers, who have traditionally operated offline, transition to online business models. It is implementing policies that connect small and medium-sized enterprises with limited e-commerce experience to online shopping malls and support over 90% of the costs incurred during the transition of distribution channels.
According to data analytics company GlobalData, Singapore’s e-commerce market grew at an average annual rate of 15.4% between 2015 and 2019. The related market size is expected to increase from USD 6.2 billion (approximately KRW 7.4648 trillion) last year to USD 9.5 billion (approximately KRW 11.438 trillion) this year.
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