Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, has launched ‘Where You Shop Matters‘, an initiative that encourages consumers to support their local businesses, while helping SMEs to go digital following the onset of COVID-19.
The initiative is part of Visa’s broader small business strategy and follows commitments the company has made to support 10 million small and micro businesses in Asia Pacific.
As part of Where You Shop Matters, Visa will be working with Shopee to feature more than 2,000 local micro SMEs in its marketplace and create campaigns to enable Visa cardholders to enjoy discounts when they shop at these local merchants.
This is in line with Shopee’s own range of support local efforts – particularly, its #SGUnited Shopee Support Local campaign.
Where You Shop Matters reinforces Visa’s commitment to supporting small businesses in this period of difficulty. The impact for these businesses caused by COVID-19 reinforced the need for Visa to launch Where You Shop Matters to support local businesses in Singapore and help them digitise,” said Kunal Chatterjee, Visa Country Manager for Singapore & Brunei.
“We are confident that Singaporeans will help support the local economy, especially since our study showed that 98 per cent of Singaporean consumers will purchase from local retailers to support small business recovery. More than half of the consumers also indicated that they will shop online more often due to the pandemic,” he added.
“Being a homegrown company ourselves, Shopee has always been dedicated to nurturing and empowering local SMEs and entrepreneurs. This partnership further reinforces our commitment to supporting local, especially during a time where camaraderie amongst one another is key,” noted Zhou Junjie, Chief Commercial Officer for Shopee.
“We are excited to collaborate with Visa on this meaningful campaign and will continue doing our part to boost local businesses striving towards economic recovery as one nation,” he added.
A recent study by Visa showed that 83 per cent of Singaporean consumers believe it is important for local retailers to have an online presence. In the wake of COVID-19, the insights from this study have shown the importance for SMEs to have a digital presence and adapt with changing consumers’ behaviours in order to do well.
“By going online, SMEs can expand their customer base, not only in Singapore, but in different countries or regions. They will join a global marketplace that can be accessed by millions of Visa cardholders around the globe,” Mr Chatterjee remarked.
To encourage SMEs to go digital, Visa will be providing them with a Visa eCommerce Starter Kit to help them start, manage and grow their online storefronts. Visa is partnering with BigCommerce to provide onboarding support and special discount rates for SMEs to sign up and start selling online.
SMEs can also benefit from a variety of offers including Office 365 business packages and cashback on Google Ads to help them get their online business up and running. For SMEs with physical stores, they can order free Visa POS signage to build trust with consumers.
“We are very excited to have the opportunity to work closely with Visa in adopting eCommerce solutions and digital tools to help grow our business,” expressed Deanna Chew, co-founder of Deanna’s Kitchen.
“Not only does going digital help us to stay afloat in these difficult times, it’s given us the capacity needed to help the local community as well. We’ve prepared and donated prawn noodles to frontline healthcare staff, to show our appreciation and support for their efforts,” she added.