STB inks 3-year partnership with KrisShop to market local brands

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Singapore Airlines’ flagship retailer, KrisShop, has entered into a three-year partnership to jointly market home-grown brands and grow their eCommerce reach. The partnership also seeks to create “seamless experiences” for local and international customers for both brands.

Under the partnership, content will be co-developed to profile local brands on KrisShop.com and highlight the vibrancy of Singapore’s retail scene. In the first phase, STB and KrisShop will launch a domestic campaign to raise awareness of local brands and grow demand for their products. Both partners will develop and amplify content to showcase local design talent and elevate the perception of Singapore’s retail scene. This complements the “Made with passion” initiative launched late last year, which looks to highlight the passion story behind local brands. In the next phase, STB and KrisShop will roll out global campaigns across various key markets as international travel resumes. 

To help local brands reach a wider international audience, KrisShop.com will be the exclusive eCommerce platform for retail showcase shop Design Orchard, offering it an additional distribution channel. From this week, 36 Design Orchard brands will be digitally housed on “With Love, SG”, a KrisShop concept store for home-grown brands showcasing Singapore’s culture and heritage. With the inclusion of Design Orchard brands, there will be a total of 100 local brands in the concept store, and more Design Orchard brands are said to be coming on board in the coming months.

Consumers will be able to purchase a wide variety of homegrown products from lifestyle/sports brands such as Kydra, Photo Phactory, and Temple Candles, to fashion/accessories labels such as Binary Style, EDEN + ELIE, and Reckless Ericka. KrisShop will also work with STB and Design Orchard brands to raise the profile of these homegrown brands through joint promotions, limited-edition collections and exclusive collaborations, among other marketing efforts. As with the rest of the brands on their eCommerce platform, KrisShop will also offer Design Orchard brands guidance to boost eCommerce sales in Singapore and in global markets, and hold regular review sessions with the brands.

As part of the partnership, STB and KrisShop will explore new fulfilment services and channels to create effortless online-to-offline and offline-to-online retail experiences for Design Orchard and KrisShop’s customers. Some ideas to be trialled include self-collection for local customers at designated pickup points, such as Design Orchard and SingPost POPstations. Additionally, STB and KrisShop will also explore integrating KrisShop.com’s features with STB’s official VisitSingapore mobile application. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for additional information.

Lynette Pang, STB’s assistant chief executive (marketing group), said the partnership with KrisShop aims to future-proof local brands, giving them a new channel to reach local and international audiences, and ideas to enhance customer experiences. “Singapore has a vibrant retail scene, and we are excited to partner a homegrown retailer like KrisShop to shine the spotlight on our local brands. Profiling local brands is part of our strategy to build destination affinity and mindshare, and ensure that Singapore stays top-of-mind during this period and when travel resumes,” she added.

Chris Pok, CEO of KrisShop said: “KrisShop has always prided itself on being a uniquely Singapore brand, a value that is deeply reflected in our thoughtful curation of local products across our suite of offerings and concept stores. We are delighted to partner STB, as this partnership is an extension of our efforts to champion our culture, and further fuels our vision of being a platform of enablement and empowerment for homegrown entrepreneurs, by giving prominence to their crafts for audiences in Singapore and beyond.”

This partnership with KrisShop is STB's latest effort in promoting home-grown brands. Under the "Made With Passion" initiative launched last month, STB introduced the Singapore Brand Mark with the main objective of encouraging local brands to tell their own passion stories. The brand mark has since been awarded to 48 local brands across four lifestyle categories - beauty and wellness, fashion and accessories, homeware and decor, as well as packaged F&B. These brands include Eu Yan Sang, HYSSES, Charles & Keith, Love, Bonito, Supermama, Brewerkz, awfullychocolate, Yeo’s, Ya Kun International, Camel, and The Golden Duck. The Singapore Brand Office is also looking to onboard more local brands in the future. The Singapore Brand Mark was first announced in September by Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing.

(Photo courtesy: 123RF)

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