To start an e-commerce business in Singapore, you’ll need to register your business entity with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), pick a platform that connects to local marketplaces and logistics, and build a checkout that matches how Singapore shoppers pay. From 2024 to 2025, Singapore’s e-commerce platform market expanded by 21%, reaching a total monetary value of US$5.9 billion. Since the country’s market conditions already favour online retail, the real work lies in getting registration, platform choice, and payment setup right from the start.

Below, we’ll cover the different types of e-commerce businesses in Singapore, how to start an e-commerce business, and what a payments setup should include to match local buying habits.

Key takeaways

• Every e-commerce business in Singapore needs an ACRA-registered entity with a Unique Entity Number before it can accept payments.

• Singapore shoppers use PayNow and the Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) at checkout alongside cards.

• Choosing between a hosted platform and a custom build shapes how easily a business can scale into cross-border and marketplace selling in the future.

What is an e-commerce business in Singapore?

An e-commerce business in Singapore is a registered entity that sells goods or services online.

Three models cover much of the market:

• Direct-to-consumer stores: A business owns its site and handles its own marketing, checkout, and customer relationships.

• Marketplace-first sellers: A business lists products on a marketplace and then relies on the marketplace’s traffic and fulfilment network instead of building its own dedicated site.

• Hybrid operations: A business runs its own site for margin and brand control and uses marketplaces as a secondary channel for discovery.

Why is e-commerce growing in Singapore?

Singapore has internet penetration of 96%, near-universal smartphone ownership, and a population dense enough that same-day delivery is realistic across the island. These factors result in a customer base that’s primed to buy online.

The forces driving e-commerce growth in Singapore include:

• Consumer behaviour: Singapore shoppers can move between browsing on marketplaces and buying directly from brand sites, meaning they compare prices across both before checking out.

• Mobile-first shopping: Since online purchases often happen on a smartphone, while a customer is on the go, checkout flows must load quickly.

• Cross-border demand: Singapore sits inside a broader region of more than 680 million potential consumers, and its free trade agreements and low import tariffs make it a practical base for selling into Malaysia, Indonesia, and beyond.

What do you need to start an e-commerce business in Singapore?

Registration happens through ACRA’s Bizfile portal. Singapore residents can file directly using Singpass. Foreign founders without a local Singpass need to engage a registered filing agent to handle incorporation on their behalf.

Here’s what you need to know before registering:

• Business structure: A sole proprietorship is inexpensive and simple to register, but the owner carries personal liability for business debts, which might make it a poor fit for anything beyond a small operation.

• Private limited company requirements: A private limited company (Pte Ltd) needs at least one director who’s a Singapore citizen, permanent resident, or someone who meets local residency rules. A company secretary appointed within six months of incorporation is also required, while the minimum paid-up capital can be as little as one Singapore dollar (SGD).

• Goods and services tax (GST) registration: Registration for GST becomes compulsory once taxable turnover crosses SG$1 million over a 12-month period.

• Regulated categories: Businesses selling food products or health supplements need clearance from the Singapore Food Agency or Health Sciences Authority before they can list those items for sale.

• Niche selection: Choosing a niche in Singapore often comes down to deciding whether to serve the local market directly or use Singapore as a base to source from regional manufacturers and resell across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

• Inventory and fulfilment: New businesses don’t need a dedicated warehouse. Instead, they can pay a third-party logistics provider or bonded storage facility for space and pick-and-pack service.

How do you choose an e-commerce platform in Singapore?

The main decision you’ll face is hosted versus custom-built. A hosted platform bundles storefront, checkout, and inventory management into one system a founder can launch in days. A custom build on an open-source framework can offer more control over design but needs ongoing development work to maintain. Scalability depends on what the platform connects to.

For e-commerce businesses in Singapore, the platform should support:

• Local marketplace sync: Inventory and order integration with online marketplaces such as Shopee and Lazada, so stock levels stay accurate across every channel a business sells on.

• Local logistics providers: Direct integration with couriers such as Ninja Van, TracX Logis, or SingPost, rather than manual order handoffs.

• Local payment methods: Native support for PayNow and NETS alongside cards. If you need to add these later, you might have to rebuild your checkout from scratch.

How do you set up payments for an e-commerce business in Singapore?

Setting up your e-commerce business for payments involves several moving parts.

Here are some of the main payment considerations to consider:

• Local method coverage: Leaving off PayNow or NETS at checkout can cost sales, since Singapore shoppers treat both as standard.

• Recurring billing: Businesses running subscriptions, whether that’s a beauty box or a software product sold to local customers, need billing logic that handles failed payment retries and mid-cycle plan changes without manual work each month.

• Cross-border fraud exposure: Card-not-present fraud risk can be a danger for businesses selling outside Singapore, rather than for local-only sales, which can raise the bar on screening.

A payments provider such as Stripe can help manage all of these requirements. Stripe Payments lets a business accept cards, PayNow, and several digital wallets through a single integration instead of negotiating separate connections for each method. Stripe’s fraud detection tools also screen transactions in real time.

Businesses building a platform or marketplace model where payments are split between the platform and individual sellers can use Stripe Connect to handle that routing along with seller onboarding and payouts, which saves them from building settlement logic on their own.

What challenges do e-commerce businesses in Singapore face?

Customer acquisition costs can be high in Singapore because the market is small, competitive, and shared with well-funded regional marketplaces that can outspend independent brands on advertising. For a business without a distinct product or clear niche, the money spent on paid acquisition costs might be more than the margin it generates.

Checkout conversion can also present problems if it’s not done right. For example, forcing account creation before checkout or leaving out a payment method shoppers expect can result in cart abandonment.

Similarly, cross-border selling brings its own considerations:

• GST on imports: Singapore GST applies to low-value goods brought into Singapore, which changes the costs for overseas sellers shipping directly to Singapore customers and for local sellers importing stock.

• Customs declarations: Shipments run through Singapore’s TradeNet system, and mistakes with the paperwork can hold up delivery and frustrate customers who expect fast shipping as standard.

• Currency conversion: A business pricing in Singapore dollars while sourcing inventory or serving customers in other currencies has to account for exchange rate shifts eating into margin.

How Stripe Connect can help

Stripe Connect orchestrates money movement across multiple parties for software platforms and marketplaces. It offers quick onboarding, embedded components, global payouts and more.

Connect can help you:

• Launch in weeks: Use Stripe-hosted or embedded functionality to go live faster and avoid the up-front costs and development time usually required for payment facilitation.

• Manage payments at scale: Use tooling and services from Stripe so you don't have to dedicate extra resources to margin reporting, tax forms, risk, global payment methods or onboarding compliance.

• Grow globally: Help your users reach more customers worldwide with local payment methods and the ability to easily calculate sales tax, VAT and GST.

• Build new lines of revenue: Optimise payment revenue by collecting fees on each transaction. Monetise Stripe's capabilities by enabling in-person payments, instant payouts, sales tax collection, financing, expense cards and more on your platform.

Learn more about Stripe Connect or get started today.