Singapore durian vendors are popping on online to boost sales during harvest season, offering free delivery and other incentives to intensify competition with traditional brick-and-mortar sellers.
Durian Delivery Singapore, which says on its website that it sources durians directly from plantations, is offering free replacements for any bad fruit it sends to customers.
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A promotional image of durians for sale online. Photo courtesy of Durian Delivery Singapore |
The company, which offers free delivery for orders SGD100 (US$78) and above, claims to have received thousands of good reviews from online customers as it seeks to provide solutions to the typical issues of buying durian at stores: overcharging, poor quality fruit served at market stalls, and inconvenience of traveling due to the smell of the fruit.
“By utilizing a strongly e-commerce model, Durian Delivery Singapore is able to collate orders the day before, notify our durian plantation, and send out our durians the very next day.”
It is among many online vendors in Singapore who are seeking to gain a bigger market share.
Jeremy Chew, owner of online store Royal Durian, said during the harvest season, there could be about a dozen durian sellers doing TikTok livestreams at the same time.
The Singapore online durian market is crowded, said Chew. His company has been selling the fruit online for six years, according to
Channel News Asia.
He described the local durian industry as “very easy” to enter but questioned the sustainability of such ventures.
“The fact is, can you do it well? Are you doing it as a hobby or can you really do it long term?”
Home-based vendor Dukrian attracts customers through e-commerce platforms and delivery apps like Grab.
The shop distinguishes itself by sourcing directly from plantations rather than wholesalers.
“It makes a very big difference in terms of the durian quality,” said Daren Chan, the shop’s owner.
Samer El Hajjar, a senior marketing lecturer at the National University of Singapore’s Business School, attributed the rise of online durian sales to the convenience of delivery.
“The key to stand out is trust (and) to give good prices, good photos, honest descriptions (and) good reviews,” he said.
As durian is now in harvest season in Singapore and its neighbor Malaysia – where most durians are sourced from, famers are seeking to partner with many service providers to reduce their inventory.
An all-you-can-eat premium buffet will be held at The Bay Restaurant inside
Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa,
starting July 11.
Featured varieties include the highly sought-after Mao Shan Wang, Red Prawn, and D24, also known as Sultan durians.
FairPrice, Singapore’s largest supermarket chain, is selling kampung durians at SGD1.95 apiece as a limited promotion this month.
The city-state sources about 85% of its durians from Malaysia and, during the peak season, imports around 100,000 kilograms of the fruit per day, according to
Bloomberg.
