In a series of Market Entry webinars organised by DesignSingapore Council, Spire Deputy CEO Japnit Singh was invited to share his insights on expanding into regional markets — namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

While Singapore is a vibrant design hub, its relatively small domestic market compels homegrown companies to venture across its shores. Japnit delivered a market overview of four Southeast Asian markets that Singapore businesses can look towards when expanding. One such market is Indonesia, which was ranked by almost half of 1,100 firms surveyed by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) as a top overseas expansion destination. Another attractive location is Thailand, for its robust e-commerce penetration rates and impressive record in stimulating foreign and domestic investments. 

In addition to ​providing a snapshot of these key markets in ASEAN, Japnit also shared some market entry strategies. To further help companies looking to embark on overseas expansion, Japnit revealed the “Internationalisation Toolkit”, a checklist to assess the company’s level of preparation for internationalisation.

In response to a Q&A query on the typical mistakes firms make when undergoing expansion, he spoke about the error of not understanding the new market well and underestimating the importance of curating products to local tastes. Japnit recommends that firms embark on local immersion programmes to get to know their market better. He gave an example of a local immersion study Spire conducted for a Singapore design and technology firm expanding into the Philippines. 

The webinar was aired live on 29 June 2021. A recording of the webinar should be uploaded in a few weeks. We will send out alerts when it is posted.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Marie Teo
Manager, Group Corporate Communications
Spire Research and Consulting
Phone: (65) 6838 5355
E-mail: marie.teo@spireresearch.com