Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is enhancing the experience of its Singapore customers with the launch of a larger marketplace and local store. The company is expanding its product selection as well as strengthening competition with competitors like Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE: BABA), Sea Ltd’s Shopee, and Lazada.

New marketplace to offer a wide range of products

The e-commerce giant launched online shopping in Singapore over two years ago through its fast delivery service mobile app. Initially, Amazon.com focused on household essentials and groceries for local selection, but that is yet to gain traction as that of competitors.

With the launch of the local marketplace, Amazon.sg, the company will now offer a variety of international goods. It will also have goods from Singapore’s’ local small and medium-sized enterprises.

In a statement, Amazon Singapore country manager Henry Low indicated that they wanted to offer consumers what they have been asking for. He indicated that Singapore consumers had wanted the ability to shop online, a variety of international and local selections from the e-commerce giant’s reliable sellers.

According to Low said that with Amazon.sg, customers will now have to access a wide range of products cutting across books, baby and toys, video games, consumer electronics as well as home and kitchenware. This will include Amazon Kindle, which was previously not available in the country.

The company will permit small business enterprises to sell their products on amazon.sg platform. Competitors such as Lazada are employing the marketplace model to run businesses in Singapore.

Amazon’s entry in Southeast Asia

Singapore becomes the first country to get Amazon in the South-east Asia region. Amazon is available in around 15 countries such as the US, Australia, India, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico. Previously customers could access amazon, but most goods were not available for shipping, and for those available for shipping, they were charging high fees.

Although Singapore seems to be small, it is nonetheless a high-value market with its 5.7 million people. Often it tends to be a Launchpad for most consumer-focused entities targeting the larger Southeast Asia countries such as Indonesia.