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SINGAPORE – Singapore-based readers now have a convenient – and more socially conscious – way to buy books online, as eight local independent booksellers have banded together to launch a one-stop online bookstore featuring more than 40,000 titles. Bookshop.sg, which opened for orders on May 14, is a booksellers’ initiative which brings together fiction, non-fiction and children’s titles across English, Mandarin and Malay. It is a joint effort by home-grown indie bookstores Epigram Books, Basheer Graphic Books, Wardah Books, Thryft, Sea Breeze Books, City Book Room, Union Book and Nurul Anwar Bookstore. The online store will provide free local shipping for purchases above $150 – or charge a $5.90 fee for smaller purchases – while allowing readers to mix and match titles from across the eight bookstores, Thryft’s chief executive Eddie Lim tells The Straits Times.   Mr Ibrahim Tahir, 51, founder of Wardah Books, adds: “We are providing an alternative for people who are conscious about where their dollar is spent.” He first gathered indie booksellers at his store on 58 Bussorah Street in December 2024 to discuss avenues of cooperation. Bookstores are increasingly turning into “showrooms” for customers who browse in-store, but opt to buy their books more cheaply from Amazon, says Mr Ibrahim, which harms the local literary ecosystem.   He cites a 2014 French law which imposed a minimum book delivery fee to protect indie booksellers against huge online retailers. There is no equivalent rule in Singapore.   Bringing indie bookstores together is an act of “radical cooperation”, he says, and offers an ethical choice to readers. “The dollar that you spend in a local bookshop stays within the community. It drives things that we do, such as book events, launches with local authors and book clubs. Amazon doesn’t do that,” says Mr Ibrahim, who has run his bookstore in Kampong Gelam since 2002.   Mr Ibrahim Tahir, founder of Wardah Books, says Bookshop.sg provides an alternative for people who are conscious about where their dollar is spent.PHOTO: ST FILE In recent months, bookstore closures have dominated headlines. Chains like Times Bookstores exited the market in September 2024 after nearly five decades of operations, and indie bookstore Epigram Coffee Bookshop shuttered its only physical store at Singapore Art Museum in January 2025 due to low traffic. Epigram Books publisher Edmund Wee, who now sells books through an online store, had convened a meeting with booksellers together with Mr Ibrahim during a testing time for the industry: “The more outlets you have (to sell your books), the better it is for the bookseller. Every outlet extends your potential buyer. I don’t see it as a competition.” Mother tongue-language booksellers hope that the multilingual online bookstore can help English-language readers better discover books in other languages. Mr Ang Jin Yong, 34, operations director of Sea Breeze Books, which sells Chinese-language books online, says: “A common problem for our mother tongue publishers and booksellers is that our market is limited. But I still think that some of the English readers would want to read mother tongue books.” For Ms Tan Waln Ching, 42, director of City Book Room, this initiative lays the foundation for future collaborations between booksellers. “I would like to learn from other booksellers as well, because we are usually very busy taking care of our shops.” The eight booksellers that ST spoke to cite common challenges across the trade – predatory pricing by global conglomerates, the decline of literacy among young readers, the increase in children’s screen time and dipping bookstore visitorship. Ms Tan Waln Ching, director of City Book Room, says Bookshop.sg lays the foundation for future collaborations between booksellers.PHOTO: ST FILE Bookshop.sg, which is inspired by a similar initiative launched in the United States and United Kingdom in 2020, is the latest experiment by local booksellers to give a boost to the flagging trade. In July 2024, ST reported that experimental book concepts such as pay-to-rent community library Casual Poet Library were cropping up to deal with Singapore bookshops’ biggest killer – rental costs. Mr Lim promises that Bookshop.sg – which is developed by Thryft – will provide an experience “on a par or better” than Amazon’s, as users can currently browse books by genre and bookstore. The online store is looking to onboard more indie bookstores in the future and feature curated collections by booksellers as well. Mr Ibrahim hopes the online store will also drive new readers to physical stores. “For the ecosystem to survive, it needs to recognise that the keystone is the bookshop. The bookshop is what ties together publishers, writers and readers all in one space – and space is important because this is where human beings interact.” He says Bookshop.sg will help “reach the readers who want to look for books, but are not socialised into coming into a bookshop and go online to look for things”. He is cognisant, however, that it will not be able to address more structural problems: “The question of the fall of readership is a much bigger question.” Bookshop.sg (www.bookshop.sg) will host two booksellers’ panels at Thryft Hub, 120 Lower Delta Road, on May 31 at 1.30 and 3pm as part of its launch. The free event, which requires registration, will see each bookstore showcase more than a dozen of its best titles.

SINGAPORE – Passengers will be able to use American Express cards to make contactless payments on public transport from May 15, with the current slate of accepted credit cards expanded. Those using these cards can also add them to their mobile wallets for easier access, the Land Transport Authority and American Express announced in a joint press statement on May 13. Passengers do not need to pre-register their cards to use them.   “This will eliminate the need to carry a separate travel card or top up stored-value travel cards before the journey,” the statement said. Passengers who use American Express cards are charged the same fares as those who use stored-value travel cards such as ez-link and Nets FlashPay cards, without additional fees involved. As with other credit cards, charges for public transport rides will be reflected in the user’s credit, charge, debit or pre-paid credit card bills.   Those with a SimplyGo app account can also view their travel expenses and history there. In addition, they can opt to receive push notifications for fares incurred after each trip.     The statement said passengers “who carry more than one contactless bank card or travel card are reminded to take out the card they wish to use before tapping at the fare reader, and to use the same card to tap in and out, to avoid charges to multiple cards”. Mr Marlin Brown, American Express country manager for Singapore, said the addition of the card to the slate brings greater convenience for users.   “It is important for us to provide our card members with a seamless payment experience wherever they live, work and play, and enabling them to use their cards on public transportation worldwide is essential,” he said. Credit cards were first accepted on public transport in Singapore in late 2016, when a pilot programme was introduced to allow the use of Mastercard contactless cards to pay for bus and train rides. Mastercard contactless payments were among the features included when SimplyGo was rolled out in April 2019. In the same year, the system was expanded to include Visa cards in June and Nets cards in November.

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