Jumpstart had a fantastic time hosting our very first Shopify Meetup in Singapore on 14 March. We had 150 people who turned up at WeWork for an evening of brilliant insights, drinks and networking.

Our three guest speakers — Neeta Nelson from TradeGecko, our very own Jeanette Lau and Ricky Jack from Vyne Digital — were on hand to share their thoughts on e-commerce and Shopify’s role.

Neeta discussed the importance of thinking beyond the digital shopfront — offline sales are just as important and even help boost your store’s rankings in Google searches. She talked about different ways to start small if you’re still nowhere near ready, including pop-up stores.

Jeanette then discussed the real definition of growth, and how to look at more than just the traditional benchmarks such as sales — for instance, more channels and going global. She then shared the key to attaining this growth: maximum efficiency and produtivity. Jeanette called for everyone to embrace ways of doing so through automation and an agile workflow.

On that note, it was apt that Ricky went on to take us through the stages of business growth development.

We then opened the floor for questions from the audience, led by a 2-man panel of savvy entrepreneurs: Victor Lee from e-scooter distributor Falcon PEV and Vincent Ooi of sustainable label Source Collections.
It was a fascinating discussion as the guys discussed everything with the audience including their very first sale, and we did a Q&A with our guest speakers to talk Shopify’s partnership with Instagram and more.

The fun didn’t end there though. The following day, we gathered for a cosy get-together lunch at Napoleon Food & Wine Bar — it was incredible with 25 attendees turning up to make friends and exchange ideas over wine, a delicious meal and private presentations by Jeanette, Ricky and Stanley Lee from World First.

A huge thank you to everyone who made time to join us — we’re excited to see you at our next event. Follow us on Facebook here for updates!