Amazon Prime launches in Singapore, takes on Alibaba and Sea
On Tuesday, e-commerce giant Amazon launched its membership based Amazon Prime service in Singapore.
This came just days after the option for free shipping from the US became unavailable for Singaporeans without real explanation.
The Amazon Marketplace has previously not been available in Singapore, but had offered the option of free shipping from US businesses to the city-state for orders over $125.
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However, now Amazon Prime membership is available which may indicate Amazon is interested in setting up a local marketplace in Singapore.
Now, Singaporeans will be able to access a range of Prime services including fast, cheap shipping on orders and free 2-hour delivery guarantees on certain orders – a feature it tried to roll out in July with its Prime Now service and mobile app, but faced delivery failures.
Prime members in Singapore will also be able to access Amazon’s collection of movies and TV shows.
Amazon will be competing with locally available ecommerce businesses like Sea’s Shopee and Alibaba-backed Lazada and Tokopedia.
It will also compete with streaming platforms like Netflix and more local players, iFlix, Hooq and Viddsee.
