If you’re hiring in Singapore from the US, UK or Australia, you know the problem. You want a branded welcome kit at the new hire’s door on day one, but you’re 10,000 kilometres away and don’t want it taking three weeks, getting held at customs or arriving in a crushed box.
It’s a common headache for global HR and people teams. This is how to fix it.
Why shipping welcome kits from overseas to Singapore is a bad idea
It seems simple: ask your supplier back home to ship to Singapore. In practice, a few things go wrong.
Customs delays: customs can hold shipments for inspection. A kit due on Monday turns up two weeks later, after the new hire’s first week.
GST: if the kit is worth more than SGD 400, your new hire may be asked to pay 9% GST before they can have it. Not a great first impression.
Damage in transit: a kit flying in from London or San Francisco passes through a lot of hands. Boxes get crushed, things shift, and what arrives looks nothing like the kit you designed.
Cost: courier fees from the US or UK to Singapore for one welcome kit typically run SGD 55 to 140. For 20 new hires a year, that’s SGD 1,100 to 2,800 in shipping alone.
The fix is to source and send them locally.
How local fulfilment works
With a Singapore-based swag partner, your kits are sourced, branded, packed and sent within Singapore, so nothing is shipped internationally.
It usually works like this:
- You brief a local supplier on the items you want, your brand guidelines, and your budget
- They source and brand the items locally, then pack them to your specifications
- Finished kits are stored in a Singapore warehouse
- When you hire someone new, you send the address and the kit ships within one to two working days
- Your new hire receives a clean, well-packaged kit at their door with no customs involvement
You manage it all remotely, with nobody needed on the ground in Singapore.
What to include in a Singapore welcome kit
The best welcome kits mix practical items with a few branded touches. For a hire in Singapore, keep the climate in mind.
It’s hot and humid all year, so insulated tumblers and good tote bags get used every day, while heavy winter clothes and blankets don’t.
A good Singapore welcome kit usually has:
A branded tumbler or insulated bottle: useful, feels valuable and gets used every day.
A good notebook: works for any industry or level. Pick one with decent paper that lies flat.
A branded tote bag: useful for commuting in Singapore, where public transport is the norm.
A company t-shirt or cap: optional, but popular with companies big on culture. Get sizes before you order.
A welcome note: often the thing people remember most, and it costs nothing. A note from a manager or founder, written to the new hire by name, makes the kit feel like a welcome rather than a delivery.
Planning around your hiring volume
If you hire in Singapore regularly, make a batch of kits up front and store them locally. Your supplier holds the stock and sends a kit each time someone joins.
That way:
- Each kit costs less than making them one at a time
- Kits arrive one to two days after you send the address
- Nobody scrambles to organise a kit every time someone starts
- Everyone gets the same kit, whenever they join
If you hire two or more people a quarter in Singapore, batches with local storage almost always work out cheaper.
Lead times to plan around
Setting it up for the first time? A realistic timeline:
Initial setup (first batch): four to five weeks from brief to kits in storage, covering sourcing, branding, checks and packing.
Ongoing fulfilment: one to two working days from hire notification to delivery, once inventory is in place.
Reorders: two to three weeks to top up stock. Reorder when you’re down to about four to six weeks’ worth of hires.
Start early and you’ll have more room for choosing products, sampling and artwork changes.
Extending to other APAC markets
Once kits are running in Singapore, the same setup works for the rest of APAC. A Singapore-based partner can ship to Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia from the same stock.
Instead of a supplier in every country, you have one team in Singapore, one brief and the same quality everywhere.
If you’re growing your APAC headcount, that’s much simpler than juggling suppliers in five countries.
Related: What to put in an employee welcome kit · APAC swag fulfilment