Singapore government backs self-service technology

The Singapore government is backing a push to urge shoppers to use self-service technology more in a campaign titled “We Are InDIYpendent”.

Several supermarket chains, including the nation’s largest – NTUC FairPrice – have swung behind the initiative which was launched by the National Productivity Council (NPC).

In a bid to galvanise more Singaporeans into using self-service counters, the supermarkets and other large retailers will be rolling out various promotions and discounts in coming weeks.

A key driver of the initiative is to help ease the labour crunch by having consumers serve themselves.

The NPC says the campaign “celebrates the advantages of using self-service facilities” and encourages businesses to adopt self-service models more aggressively.

At the project’s official launch at an NTUC FairPrice store, Minister for Manpower, Lim Swee Say and Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and Industry, Low Yen Ling teamed up with celebrities Michelle Chong and Suhami Yusof in a self-service challenge which pitted them against each other to get as many shoppers as possible to use the self-checkouts.

“Self-checkout (SCO) is a game-changing initiative for our local retailers,” explains the NPC.

“With a tight manpower situation and increasingly competitive business environment, retail companies need to adopt technologies that require less manpower to improve their productivity.”

The government is providing companies with grants and assistance schemes to help them implement self-service options.

“Consumers can play their part by embracing such options to create an impetus for more businesses to adopt these models in their operations in a more aggressive manner.”

The We Are InDIYpendent campaign seeks to encourage consumers to use self-service facilities. The campaign also aims to feature three key benefits of using self-service facilities – ease of use, speed and flexibility.

Other highlights of the campaign include mystery spotting activities to incentivise consumers to use DIY options in more areas of their daily lives, videos offering interesting insights on DIY culture, as well as print and out-of-home (OOH) ads featuring different forms of self-service.