wish to strengthen ties to their local communities and economy.  It’s now clear that since the pandemic, the strongest retailers are those that have pivoted to an e-commerce offering and according to marketing expert Dr Seshan Ramaswami, food retailers in particular have stepped up their game.  “The Covid crisis has hastened the pace of conversion to e-commerce for even frequently purchased supermarket items,” Ramaswami told Inside Retail.  “The ‘circuit breaker’, as it was called in Singapore, led to all non-essential brick-and-mortar stores closing for eight weeks, and that led to a real impetus for many retailers to go online, especially in the food and beverage industry.” According to a new report from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Visa, many consumers in the APAC region are shopping online for the first time, which is expected to continue post-pandemic. It found that the most popular category for first-time e-commerce buyers is food and beverage. Ramaswami added the local food delivery brands, Foodpanda, Deliveroo and Grabfood all experienced tremendous increases in new restaurant additions, and of course, a huge increase in patronage too, as Singaporeans are normally accustomed to regularly eating out during the week. One interesting attempt at going online was by the popular Tekka wet market, a traditional government-supported centre with numerous fresh meat, seafood and fruit and vegetable stalls, observed Ramaswami. The market had a Facebook livestreamed auction, where it took orders for pre-selected packages of a combination of vegetables. Unfortunately, it was a short- lived success, said Ramaswami, as the traditional wet market shopper is not likely to easily shift online. Supermarket shoppers, however, did move online in large numbers to local grocery retailer Redmart and numerous other small operators, which thrived in a surge of newly registered customers. “Some local brands have always been very popular in Singapore, especially food brands like Bee Cheng Hiang, Prima Deli, and Khong Guan that have a long history as home-grown businesses,” noted Ramaswami. A boost for Singaporeans small businesses? In an effort to support local small businesses, Visa and the STB have recently partnered to address their needs as a result of Covid and in October, they will launch two campaigns to encourage Singaporeans to shop local and support domestic travel –  #SingapoRediscovers and #WhereYouShopMatters. This will be followed by further campaigns profiling local businesses to boost spending at local hotels, attractions, food and drink outlets. When overseas tourism returns, Visa and the STB will launch international marketing campaigns to increase awareness of brands and experiences in Singapore. However, Ramaswami is unsure of the campaigns’ cut-through in the current climate, especially when discretionary consumption is not a priority for Singaporeans right now and businesses are experiencing a slowdown in demand.  He also warned that the outlook on physical stores in Singapore does not appear promising, with the Covid crisis exacerbating an already deteriorating situation. “Until tourists return in their large numbers, there may be many more foreclosures especially in the city and touristy areas,” Ramaswami said.