As Singapore is such a small island, its mail order industry is limited to a few online shops and the services of vPost, which allows shoppers to access stores in the US, Japan, and Europe. While most major international mail order retailers will ship to Singapore. Nevertheless, a few local options and vPost services can make mail order and Internet shopping possible.
- eMall: An online collection of Internet shopping in Singapore.
- Singapore Buy Online: This portal links buyers to online shops in Singapore.
- vPost: A service of SingPost, vPost allows registered users to set up overseas mailing addresses in the US, Europe, and Japan so that buyers can purchase from stores there. vPost also offers a direct online shopping portal. As long as purchases are not particularly heavy, one can get decent prices on postage.
Some of the online stores from further afield that are particularly popular with the exat crowd are as follows:
- iherb: A US-based store that specializes in health and organic foods. The cost of many dried goods, supplements and baby foods are a fraction of those charged in Singapore and flat-rate shipping of $4 USD is available.
- Amazon: The US Amazon store offers free shipping to Singapore of goods from certain categories providing you send over $120 USD. Again, many of the items available are a fraction of what they cost in Singapore.
- Feel Unique: A UK-based cosmetic and beauty site that currently offers free international shipping.
- Asos: A UK-based clothing store that currently offers free international shopping.
- Alex and Alexa: An online kid’s clothing store that offers free international shipping for orders in excess of $202 SGD.
