Competitor analysis

A market is a place where the demand and supply forces operate and allows buyers and sellers to interact to facilitate an exchange. The type of market can be physical or online. It facilitates deals and transactions. This report includes the marketing plan of the e-commerce industry of Singapore. E-Commerce is buying and selling of the goods and services over an electronic network like the internet. These business transactions occur in three forms like business to business, business to customer or customer to the business. The e-commerce industry in Singapore has grown enormously in the last few years. The industry has a substantial increase in the number of online start-ups in the home needs and entertainment. The country is embracing its dedication in the digital economy to attain the goal of becoming a smart nation. As per the report of the World Bank, Singapore is the second easiest place to do business in the world. It is estimated that e-commerce revenue of Singapore will amount to $3.74 billion by the end of 2018. It is anticipated to show an annual growth rate of 10.1% (Export.gov, 2018). The e-commerce industry in Singapore supports companies in developing and expanding their online business.

The e-commerce market of Singapore is growing fast due to its persistent; ultra-high speed trusted infrastructure, the government’s dedication in embracing digital technology and achieving the objective of becoming a smart nation. The e-commerce sales in Singapore are estimated to reach the US $7.4 billion by 2020 (TQC, 2018). The government of Singapore has launched an electronic commerce to manage businesses. The government targets to transact $4 billion worth of the product and services online. A greater potential is shown in the next 10 years due to increasing middle class and young consumer market.

There are various e-commerce players in the market of Singapore such as Chope, Pootaa, Redfoodie, Mogl, Qraved and more. But the main competitors are HungryGoWhere, Weeloy, and Kreserve. HungryGoWhere is the top competitor of the Singapore industry. It was established in 2006 in Singapore. When it is compared to the Chope it has 83 fewer employees. Weeloy is also one of the top competitors of the Chope. It was established in 2014. It generates $5.6 million less revenue than Chope. Kreserve is also one of the competitors and generates %5.6 Million less revenue.

If it is talked about Chope then it is highly differentiated from its competitors in the restaurant reservation space. It has a list of 600 restaurants in Singapore which is quite impressing. On the other side, Chope’s investment in table and queue management technologies differentiates it from the competitors. The website of the Chope has 24/7 booking widget which combines booking from restaurant’s website as well as social media channels. It integrates booking and table management tools. The strong partnership of the Chope differentiates it from the competitors. It captures the devotion of the diners as they browse on the website of the partners. It takes reservations directly from the top websites like Google, TripAdvisor, Ctrip and more. The company has even acquired TickTok dealing in the queue management systems which is a perfect adjacent product complement to its seating technologies.

Dominant economic features

The biggest player is Opentable and its valuation is worth more than the US $ 2 billion. It has various geographical focuses and has a single restaurant on the list. OpenTable is a supplier of internet-enabled customer relationship management, marketing and reservations solutions to the $500 billion global foodservice industry. On the other hand, Restalo ranks second as competitors of the Chope. It allows customers to spare thousands of restaurants for free. It also aids restaurant owners to maximize their capacity and increase their revenue. The closest competitor of the Chope in Singapore is HungryGoWhere. It was acquired by SingTel back in 2012. Chope has prouder expansion plans whereas HungryGoWhere is mainly focused on Singapore.

The e-commerce sites has 24/7 online reservations and provides instant email confirmation of the bookings. It even provides exclusive promotions, restaurant updates, and special menus. It works with the best restaurants in Singapore and it keeps on adding restaurants on the weekly basis. There is a list on the website which provides information about the new restaurants. It provides hassle-free dining experience and improves guest experience by seating and queue management techniques. The revenue of the company is mainly derived from the 600 participating restaurants. They pay a monthly subscription fee to the company. The e-commerce companies also earn through the booking fee for each diner coming through the platform. The 600 partners of the company represent double the number they had a year ago. The company had over 250,000 registered users across Singapore and Hong Kong (DBS SME Banking, 2018). It has achieved ten million dinner milestone. The companies expect their more growth with the recent expansion into Shanghai and Beijing. The lifecycle of the services of the companies begin with the authorization request from the users which is known as the payment gateway. The economies of scale reduce the average cost of the companies engaged in the online process. The companies have gained economies of scale due to their expansion in the local market as well as foreign market. The benefits arising from the expansion of the services depends on its efficiency. It can be assessed by looking at the changes in average costs with the increasing size. The company’s more expenses on the advertisement lead to the generation of more sales. As a result, the companies can earn more profits at the same cost applied earlier (Wang, Li, Li and Zhang, 2016).  

The external environment comprises the following factors:

Political factors: The political risk in Singapore is quite low. It defines the impact of government policy on the companies operating in the local economy. The political factors include factors like tax policy, trade tariffs and monetary policy (Rodan, 2016). These factors affect the revenue structure of the Chope.

Economic factors: The economic factors have an impact on the Choper as these factors are determinants of the economy’s performance. For instance, the increase in the inflation rate of an economy affects price along with the products and services of the company. The purchasing power and demand in an economy are also affected by economic factors.

External environment

Social factors: social factors influence both the market and society. It includes career attitudes, population growth, health awareness, cultural prospects, age distribution, and global warming. The business sector in Singapore expects higher purchasing power from the customers (Tan, et. al. 2015).

Technological factors: The technological factors are considered important to prevent services being out-dated. It is helpful in updating the services of the e-commerce comapnies. The factors comprise an advertisement, marketing, and publicity programs. The technological factors are behind one of the reasons of the change in the lifestyle (Baumers, Dickens, Tuck and Hague, 2016).

Legal factors: The growth of the e-commerce sector depends on transparent rules and regulations. It comprises legal aspects such as taxation, consumer rights, laws, employment and more. The e-commerce companies are required to consider all the legal and illegal factors in order to trade effectively.

Environmental factors: The environmental factors are determined by the surroundings of the environment. It comprises temperature, contamination, natural calamities and more. The environmental factors are becoming important due to the increasing trend of CSR (Ortas, Álvarez, Jaussaud, and Garayar, 2015).

Competitive rivalry: This force of Porter’s defines the competition along with the profitability of the e-commerce industry. The competition in the industry is found high due to a large number of players. The brands in the e-commerce market have grown which leads to higher competition (Gummesson, Kuusela and Närvänen, 2014).

The threat of new entrants: There is a need for the large investment in marketing and technology. The barrier to entry in the e-commerce industry is moderately high. The difficulty is felt in developing brand image and trust in the customers.

The threat of substitute products: The threats in the case of substitutes for the e-commerce brands are competing for retail businesses and physical retailers (Lindborg, 2015). The company tries to earn competitive advantage by offering a better quality of the products, low prices or better customer experience.

Bargaining power of the buyers: There is hardly switching cost for the customers due to the availability of the several high brands. Now day’s customers are well informed and are ready to make an investment in the technology and customer service (Chiu, 2018). These factors lead to the bargaining power of the buyers moderately high.

Bargaining power of suppliers: The code of conduct is set by the higher authority and the brands are required to follow the same. Most e-commerce companies are conscious about their suppliers and have set code of conduct related to quality and service. The bargaining power is mostly low to medium (Wee, 2017).

The rivalry of the e-commerce industry is high due to a large number of buyers. The growing number of local and international brands in Singapore has led to higher competition. On the other hand, the threat of new entrants is low to moderate in the e-commerce industry of Singapore. It is due to the requirement of the large investment in human resources and technology. In the case of the substitute products, the customers can easily switch to another brand. The bargaining power of the buyers is discreetly high in the e-commerce industry of Singapore. The bargaining power of the buyers is high which moderates to the bargaining power of the buyers (Kurnia, Choudrie, Mahbubur and Alzougool, 2015). The bargaining power of the suppliers is low to medium in Singapore’s e-commerce industry. It is because the suppliers have to follow the code of conduct set by the higher authorities.

The forces differ across segments as the e-commerce industry is growing at an impressive rate. It also includes the reasons like growing economic activity around the globe and the growth of technology. As per the geographic segment, people of urban areas prefer to go for dinner then the rural areas. It is seen that age group of 15- 40 prefer to experience service of the Chopra several times. The status like single or married has not much role into this. The forces differ in physiographic segmentation as people prefer to choose restaurant s per their lifestyle (Lam, Ho and Law, 2015).  As per the behavioral segment, people consume service on the regular basis like weekly or monthly.

Singapore is among the largest share of online shoppers. Here almost 65% of the population prefers to shop online. The online market size, consumer behavior, growth potential, and infrastructure has reached the attractive score of the online market.

The teenage and professionals prefer to buy the service provided by the e-commerce companies in the Singapore. It is considered that such people are involved in more social activities and prefer to go for casual meetings and professional meetings. These meetings take place at the restaurants (Wensley, 2016).

The key successful factors are required in achieving desirable business goals.  The industry issues influencing success are:

• Maintaining high-quality service influences the success of the e-commerce industry. The industry can face an issue when the good quality is not provided by the restaurants. This factor is constant across all the segments.
• Staying ahead of the competition. The segments do not matter what matters is to stay away from the competition (Parmenter, 2015).
• Customer satisfaction is an important factor in the life cycle of the services provided by the e-commerce industry.

Conclusion 

From the above report, it can be concluded that the e-commerce industry of Singapore supports companies in developing and expanding their online business. The major competitors are Choper, HungryGoWhere, Weeloy and Kreserve. But the table and queue management technologies used by the e-commerce industry differentiates it. The industry provides hassle-free dining experience and improves the guest experience.  The external environment provides suitable conditions for the companies to operate in the Singapore economy.

References 

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