Ecommerce Website Development in Singapore

About Ecommerce Website Development

We build online stores that take orders on day one: Shopify when you want to move fast, WooCommerce when you want to own everything, and custom Next.js when neither fits. Razorpay, Shiprocket and GST invoices come set up, not as extras. You get a written scope and a flat quote within 24 hours.

What the engagement includes

• Razorpay or Cashfree payments, UPI included, with COD rules you control by pin code and order value
• Shiprocket or your courier of choice, with tracking emails and WhatsApp updates your customers actually read
• GST-compliant invoices generated per order, with the right HSN codes, so your accountant stops rebuilding them
• Product, collection and category pages built for search, with clean URLs and schema from day one
• Core Web Vitals checked on a mid-range Android phone on 4G, because that's who is shopping
• Google Analytics 4 and Meta pixel events for view, add to cart and purchase, tested before launch
• A handover call and written notes, so your team can add products and run sales without calling us

Low-value goods GST, halal marks and the SAFETY Mark in a Singapore online store

Singapore charges GST at the point of sale on imported low-value goods, and on an ecommerce build that sits in the cart, not the accounts. IRAS defines low-value goods as goods located outside Singapore at the time of sale, delivered by air or post, not dutiable and worth no more than the S$400 import relief threshold. An overseas seller with global turnover above S$1 million and more than S$100,000 a year of such sales and remote services to Singapore consumers must register and charge GST on them, and the rule is not only for foreigners: a Singapore store that ships direct to local customers from a warehouse abroad, as dropshipping catalogues often do, has those sales inside GST too. Three details make it code. The S$400 test uses the sales value, which excludes the shipping and insurance charged to the customer, while GST is then charged on a value that includes them, so the cart computes two numbers per line. Where a product is priced in another currency, the exchange rate at the point of sale decides it, and IRAS's own example is a bag worth S$398 at checkout and S$402 at the border. And GST is charged unless the customer gives a GST registration number, which the seller may check against IRAS's register, so checkout needs a field for it. After payment, to stop a parcel being taxed twice, the vendor's GST number and a GST-paid marker for each item have to travel with the shipment, in the customs declaration through ACCESS for air express or on the CN22 or CN23 and the invoice outside a postal parcel. If that fails and the customer pays import GST anyway, the vendor must refund them on seeing the courier's invoice, the import permit or SingPost's receipt, so each order keeps per-item GST, the shipment reference and a refund path with a credit note. IRAS's e-Tax Guide on this reached its fifth edition on 30 January 2026. Whether you must register is for your accountant.

If the store sells food, cosmetics or anything marketed to Muslim customers, a halal badge in Singapore is a regulated claim rather than a merchandising tag. Under section 88A of the Administration of Muslim Law Act, MUIS has the sole legal power to issue halal certificates here, and using any specified halal certification mark, or a colourable imitation of one, without its approval is an offence carrying a fine of up to S$10,000, imprisonment of up to 12 months or both. MUIS does not certify food products made overseas; imported products rely on foreign halal certification bodies that MUIS recognises, and it publishes the list of those bodies and their marks. That list is not static. MUIS has enhanced its recognition scheme, and its guidance updated on 7 April 2026 says new applications are required from all foreign bodies, existing ones included, with recognition lasting three years and kept up by annual reporting. So the product data model holds halal status as a record rather than a checkbox: who certified it, MUIS or which recognised foreign body, the certificate reference, its expiry and the mark exactly as supplied. The storefront shows a mark only while that record is current, the halal filter on a category page reads the same record rather than a tag a merchandiser typed, and a scheduled job checks expiry dates and the published list, so a lapsed certificate or a body that was not re-recognised takes the badge down without anyone having to remember. Supplier feeds and bulk uploads are screened for the word and for logos visible in packaging shots, since a mark shown in a listing image can be a use of the mark as much as one in the copy. MUIS's consumer guidance also stresses keeping halal products apart from non-halal food in storage and transport, which the website cannot enforce but your fulfilment partner can. Which claims your listings may make is for MUIS or your own counsel to confirm.

Electrical goods carry a Singapore rule that stops a listing before it stops a sale. Under the Consumer Protection (Safety Requirements) Regulations, 33 categories of household electrical, electronic and gas appliances and accessories, called Controlled Goods, must be tested to specified standards, registered with the Consumer Product Safety Office and marked with the SAFETY Mark before they can be sold here, and the Office says no party may advertise them for supply, or supply them, until they are registered. The list reaches deep into an ordinary catalogue: AC adaptors including battery chargers, multi-way adaptors including those with USB ports, kettles, rice cookers, hair dryers and straighteners, fans, table lamps and decorative lighting chains among them. Each registered model has an 8-digit registration number traceable on the public register, and selling unregistered Controlled Goods carries a fine of up to S$10,000, imprisonment of up to two years or both. Registration belongs to a Registered Supplier, which needs a UEN and Corppass, and the Office says importers, parallel importers, retailers and manufacturers bringing Controlled Goods in will generally need to register them, so a store sourcing a model through a cheaper parallel channel cannot borrow the authorised distributor's number. In the build, the category tree carries a Controlled Goods flag, and a product in a flagged category cannot be published without a registration number and model that match the register, recorded with who checked and when. On a marketplace the same check sits in seller onboarding and on every new listing, because a third-party seller's unregistered charger is still advertised on your site, and spreadsheet imports run the same validation rather than bypassing it. The product page shows the registration number so a buyer can check it. Low-risk categories register on a supplier's declaration while medium and high-risk ones need a certificate from a designated body, which is lead time in the plan for a new range. Whether a product falls in a category is for the Office or your own counsel.

How we work with Singapore clients

Singapore is the one market we serve where the working day is simply shared. We are two and a half hours behind you and neither country moves its clocks, so our morning starts partway through yours and the whole of your afternoon is live time for both sides. That changes the shape of an engagement more than anything technical does: a call is booked for the same afternoon rather than the same week, a question raised before your lunch is answered after it, and the written-first method we run for North American clients is a courtesy here rather than a necessity. We keep the written record anyway, with a default chosen on every open decision, because it is the thing an auditor or a new hire can read later and a call is not.

Invoicing is worth stating plainly because the GST position confuses buyers on both sides. We are outside Singapore, so no GST appears on our invoice. Whether you account for it yourself is the reverse charge question, and IRAS's own guidance is that a GST-registered business making only taxable supplies is not affected, while a partially exempt one accounts for it in its own return. We quote in Singapore dollars, the figure holds for the project whatever the rupee does, and payment by bank transfer or Wise avoids the card fees a five-figure invoice does not need. The contract can sit under Singapore law with Singapore courts, and unusually among our overseas markets that clause has teeth: Singapore is a reciprocating territory under section 44A of India's Civil Procedure Code, so a judgment of the Singapore High Court can be executed in India directly rather than re-litigated.

Questions Singapore clients ask

Ecommerce Website Development: common questions

Other markets we work in