Amazon Singapore to cut fewer than 10% of staff

Amazon Singapore will cut fewer than 10% of its 2,500 employees, as it ends Amazon Fresh local fulfilment services and seller operations from July 6 to focus on its International Store.

Amazon said most jobs across its Singapore teams will stay and affected staff can seek other roles at the firm. They also may choose to get severance and career support instead.

The ecommerce company said almost 80% of its Singapore customers bought from its international selection in 2025, and it will add more products from the United States, Japan, and Germany.

🔗 Source: CNA

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The move follows years of tougher competition in Singapore ecommerce

Ending Amazon Fresh local fulfilment services and local seller operations underscores how hard Singapore’s ecommerce market has been for Amazon. Shopee and Lazada already hold strong positions with services built for Southeast Asian shoppers 1.
Rivals added shopping entertainment such as livestream sales. ShopeeLive, Shopee’s livestream shopping feature, has been tied to sales gains of up to 75% for sellers and brands 1.
Shopee also grew fast in Indonesia by building ties with Chinese wholesalers for lower-priced goods. That differed from Lazada’s strategy after Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce group, bought the company 2.

Amazon shifts Singapore retail toward cross-border goods as AWS stays important

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing business, remains a big part of Amazon’s presence in Singapore.
Amazon said it invested more than S$2 billion (US$1.5 billion) in its retail and cloud businesses in Singapore in 2023. The company said those investments supported more than 10,000 indirect jobs that year 3.
The move could narrow Amazon.sg’s “Fresh & Fast” local-store range. That lineup includes Little Farms, a grocery retailer, plus Watsons, a health and beauty chain. Amazon has not said those partnerships will end 4.