SINGAPORE – Businesses in the heartland are receiving additional support to expand their digital capabilities in areas such as digital marketing, visual merchandising, service excellence and financial management.
Under the new Heartlands Go Digital (HGD) 3.0 initiative, which was first announced at the Committee of Supply debates in March, two new training programmes have been introduced – Service Excellence and Financial Management advisories and in-shop training.
The service excellence advisory introduced in January is designed for heartland enterprises that are interested in improving the service experience to attract more customers. An example is using a messaging platform like WhatsApp to follow up with customers.
The financial management programme, which was rolled out in June, will support heartland businesses in deepening their understanding of financial management, such as through the use of digital accounting and inventory management systems.
Both initiatives will have advisers from Heartland Enterprise Centre Singapore providing tailored advisory for the businesses.
HGD was launched in October 2020 to spur the adoption of e-payments and digital commerce solutions among heartland enterprises, such as F&B and retail shops. It was a collaboration between Enterprise Singapore, Heartland Enterprise Centre Singapore, and Federation of Merchants’ Associations Singapore.
At a walkabout in Ang Mo Kio town centre on Tuesday, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling said that HGD was first developed to support heartland enterprises during the height of the pandemic, when human traffic was low due to the circuit breaker and businesses suffered.
“Our concern back then was to support our heartland enterprises to pivot away from manual, paper-based, in-person transactions,” she said.
According to Ms Low, the objective of HGD 3.0 is to help heartland enterprises “spread their wings” in three ways.
The first is to use digital marketing, visual merchandising, service excellence and financial management to grow their revenue.
Second, Ms Low said, “it is to improve their operational efficiency – we can actually help to redesign certain jobs and cut down on manpower”.
“The third one is to really help them attract new customers who, because of their busy schedules, cannot step into the shop but can easily press a button to order products,” she said.
Since the launch of HGD, nine in 10 heartland enterprises across Singapore have adopted at least one e-payment solution, such as Nets, FavePay or GrabPay.
Two in three firms have also established a presence on digital platforms, including Google Business Profile and Carousell.
Over 200 businesses have signed up for the visual merchandising programme, which was launched in 2021 to help heartland enterprises refresh their store layouts and develop capabilities in digital and visual merchandising.
Eligible participants can receive a one-time support to defray up to 70 per cent of their project costs, capped at $8,400. The previous grant was capped at 80 per cent, up to a maximum of $4,000.
Mr Daniel Yeo, co-founder of tuition centre New Dawn Learning Studio and co-working space Wings of the Dawn in Ang Mo Kio, said that his businesses have benefited from the visual merchandising programme.
Citing how consultants worked with them to create assets like their signage, as well as give advice on how to display it to increase visibility, Mr Yeo said: “It enables customers to locate us more easily because previously they really could not find us. We have more walk-ins.”
He added that sales have improved by about 20 to 30 per cent.
For Mr Ivan Loh, the third-generation owner of MS Color, a retail store specialising in photography equipment, the improvements following the visual merchandising programme helped to extend the amount of time customers spend in his shop, which has led to a 10 per cent increase in sales.
MS Color has also adopted various digital solutions, including e-payments, which have sped up transaction times between the shop, its customers and its suppliers.
“Previously we dealt with a lot of cash, so our customers had to go to the banks to withdraw money. It was a hassle, but now we have PayNow, PayWave and other digital options, which makes it more convenient for us,” Mr Loh said.
