Singapore businesses may soon face an unprecedented double squeeze.
The first wave is already here: Pinduoduo and ultra-cheap online shopping.
An item selling for $20 in Singapore may cost just $5 online. Consumers don't even have to leave home. A few taps on the phone, and cheap products arrive at their doorstep.
Money that might once have circulated through local retailers, employees and suppliers increasingly flows overseas.
Now comes the second wave:
The Johor Bahru–Singapore RTS Link.
Expected to open around end-2026/early-2027, the train journey between Woodlands and Bukit Chagar in JB will take only about five minutes.
Singaporeans will no longer just buy cheaper goods from Pinduoduo. They will be able to conveniently cross into JB for cheaper shopping, meals, groceries, massages, beauty services and entertainment.
A 2026 study commissioned by Singapore business groups estimated that after the RTS opens, Singapore residents could spend an additional S$1.05 billion annually in JB.
That sounds worrying.
But here's the other side.
The same study estimated that JB residents could increase their spending in Singapore by about S$756 million annually.
The RTS is therefore not simply a highway carrying Singapore dollars into Malaysia.
The train travels both ways.
And therein lies Singapore's opportunity.
Instead of asking: How do we stop Singaporeans from shopping in JB? We should ask: How do we make Malaysians want to come to Singapore—and make Singaporeans still want to spend here?
The answer cannot be lower prices.
Singapore businesses cannot easily beat JB on costs, just as our retailers cannot beat Pinduoduo in a price war.
We must stop fighting the Price War and start winning the Value War.
Pinduoduo can sell a $5 product. But it cannot easily replace face-to-face trust.
JB can offer cheaper shopping and services.
Singapore must compete through trust, quality, innovation, professional services, healthcare, education, finance, entertainment, brands, safety and extraordinary customer experiences.
The businesses most at risk are those whose main competitive advantage is:
**“We're near you.”**
Because technology is destroying distance—and RTS is shrinking physical distance.
Yesterday, your competitor was across the street.
Today, your competitor could be a factory in China selling through Pinduoduo.
Tomorrow, your competitor could be five minutes across the border in JB.
We cannot make the distance longer again.
We have to make our value higher.
This is where Love Intelligence (LQ) becomes increasingly relevant to business.
**Care:** Understand what customers truly value.
**Courage:** Abandon outdated business models instead of simply cutting prices.
**Connection:** Build trust, relationships and experiences that Pinduoduo and low-cost competitors cannot easily replace.
So perhaps we should not fear Pinduoduo. And we should not fear the RTS.
Instead, they are forcing Singapore businesses to answer one of the most important questions of our future:
If we are no longer the cheapest, why should customers choose us?
Create something worth paying more for—and even worth crossing a border for.
The RTS may take some spending out of Singapore.
But if we get it right, it can also bring a much bigger market into Singapore.
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