Upscaling, cross-scaling eGSS to help businesses amid pandemic

ECONOMIES and businesses are being (if not already) reset to zero - in mahjong and casino terms, the deck's reshuffled. This reset time is not going to be all "closed cards" where all the cards face down and we pick the cards blindly.

This time, some cards are open, others are closed, and new deck/cards are being added to the reshuffle. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has affected every business - many will be revalued, devalued, going or already gone under ... Will the business world be on sale? On the other hand, some conventionally pre-Covid-19 support businesses and services have emerged to be primary and critical drivers of businesses and economies.

Businesses will need to rethink, recalibrate and restructure to strengthen and stretch resources, assets, manpower, knowhow and technological capabilities to move into geographically and commercially nimble markets and supply chains.

Competitors, supply and demand chains will be forced to cooperate, collaborate and consolidate to survive and to compete for the future.

This is the reality facing every industry in Singapore, not to mention the retail, food & beverage and tourism businesses here.

The proof of what is happening in the retail sector is self-evident. Retail sales have fallen significantly, by double-digit numbers. In May 2020, Singapore retail sales suffered its biggest year-on-year fall since record-keeping began in 1986 amid a second month of circuit breaker measures, but the worst may hopefully be over for retailers, with the economy's phased reopening.

Rising operating costs, especially relating to manpower, continued competition from e-commerce channels, constant challenge from overseas retailers leveraging their economies of scale will persist.

Beyond the retail sector, business travel, meetings, conferences and exhibitions may be considered essential or at least necessary to kick-start the economy and commercial activity. However, during the ongoing pandemic, many businesses have already used some form of telecommuting applications like Zoom, CISCO Webex, Google Meet, Skype or even WhatsApp or WeChat.

These only compound the already ongoing pressures on the Singapore's retail, food & beverage and tourism businesses.

Many businesses, especially in the retail sector, will realise that their usual business costs will be severely affected by the pandemic. Costs associated with ordering new stock and warehousing charges will escalate exponentially amid ongoing restrictions. Such costs can only be rationalised to some extent.

In this context, how "essential" are Singapore's visitor attractions, including museums, zoos, aquariums and nature parks? How will visitor attractions be allowed to resume operations as lockdown measures are eased?

We believe visitor attractions will not reach anywhere near pre-Covid-19 levels as safe distancing, crowd control and queue management measures will continue for some time, more likely for a long time. We expect organised groups to be controlled and confined among themselves, limiting interaction with other guests.

This situation will open opportunities for zero-contact experiences and tools, such as using mobile wallets for payment, app-based ticketing, show or ride booking and probably even ordering and paying for drinks and snacks, and e-brochures and GPS-enabled park map apps.

TOUGH TIMES, TOUGH MEASURES

These measures will affect the industry's traffic, revenue and cost assumptions in designing new products and experiences. Operational elasticity and scalability will also need to be factored into the design, build and operations of places: from space allocation, queue management, staff-guest interaction, traffic throughput and density, to staff manning ratio, deployment of separate operational teams and back-of-house operations and access. These will force the industry to rethink financial viability, business and operating requirements of our investments and cost structures.

In reality, this rethink is an ongoing process for the foreseeable future.

There is an old adage - that tough times call for tough measures. It is in this spirit that eGSS 2020 was conceptualised. One dimension of this initiative is to help businesses garner sales to give their topline some boost.

Equally important from the perspective of our trade associations is the need to foster holistic collaboration, providing the basis of cross-scaling or cross-sector platforms where industry players can cross-sell products and experiences to visitors and customers, who are mainly Singaporeans today. With tourist arrivals non-existent and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, the retail, food & beverage and tourism industries will up the ante and take a more proactive stance. eGSS 2020 provides a holistic platform where Singaporeans can make an attractive product purchase through a "bundle" that includes a trip to one of Singapore's renowned attractions.

Driving this bundling notion is the idea of enabling the public to "shop" and secure attractive deals, get rewarded (the "win" factor) in the process and embrace and enjoy the "experience". This concept is in its early days and consumers and businesses will see and deliver more.

Singaporeans can expect more of these "value-differentiated" promotions, rather than the usual price-driven and discount-based campaigns. As industry associations, we encourage Singaporeans to ride on these new services. In doing so, they will also be helping local businesses ride out the pandemic.