SINGAPORE – It is no longer enough for retail workers to be able to sell a product to customers in person – they now need the skills to do this in front of a camera to a live streaming audience, as well as read the viewers’ reactions and track sales in real time.
To learn to do all this, a group of 36 local retail workers attended a one-day social commerce course run by TikTok Singapore in January.
The pilot run, led by Workforce Singapore (WSG), marks an early step in preparing workers for new roles emerging in the sector. The next course is slated to take place in April.
Such training programmes are part of a broader push to reskill the retail workforce, underpinned by a collaboration between the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), TikTok Shop Singapore and WSG, which signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on March 30.
TikTok Shop is an e-commerce feature that can be found on ByteDance’s TikTok app.
The three parties will work together to develop social commerce solutions, training programmes and supporting infrastructure to boost the sector’s competitiveness and digital readiness.
The MOU was signed at the SRA Retail Forum 2026 at Raffles Hotel Singapore.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Trade and Industry and National Development Alvin Tan said: “We are here to chart the future of an industry that keeps our neighbourhoods and commercial districts full of life.
As social commerce has been “supercharged”, “retailers… must embrace digital transformation” to keep up, he added.
Separately, the Singapore Furniture Industries Council and SRA also signed an MOU on March 30 to strengthen workforce capabilities across the furniture and retail sectors, focusing on areas such as live streaming, artificial intelligence and evolving consumer behaviour.
