The recent train breakdowns on the East-West Line have underscored the vital role of public transport in Singapore, with millions of residents passing through train stations each day.
With that in mind, Stellar Lifestyle, a subsidiary of SMRT Corporation, is transforming the nation’s transit hubs into vibrant lifestyle destinations. Its innovative business model goes beyond transportation, offering commuters retail, dining and digital services that seamlessly enhance their daily journeys.
Stellar Lifestyle manages retail and advertising spaces primarily along the island’s rail network, generating revenue through leasing and advertising fees. “Unlike traditional real estate managing agents, we oversee retail space that is dispersed across SMRT train stations; many stations are a retail ‘micro-hub’ that would have its own hyper-local commuter base, depending on location and the surrounding neighbourhood,” says Tony Heng, president of Stellar Lifestyle.
In the advertising sector, the company manages around 8,000 outdoor screens nationwide. While most are located in trains and train stations, they also have a presence at select overhead bridges, underpasses, covered linkways, HDB screens, bus stops and taxi stands.
According to Heng, the core concept of the company’s business model is to optimise the significant footfall at SMRT’s stations by integrating lifestyle offerings into traditionally functional spaces. He adds: “Our vision for transit retail hubs within MRT stations is to create dynamic, integrated spaces that cater to the diverse and ever-changing needs of commuters.”
The company’s business model rests on the integration of retail and digital solutions within its transit hubs. Stellar Lifestyle leverages its prime locations — MRT stations in some of Singapore’s busiest areas — to create new opportunities for retail businesses. This is a critical driver of revenue as traditional public transport companies look to diversify and offset declining farebox revenues with non-fare income streams.
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In July, Stellar Lifestyle unveiled its blueprint for future retail spaces with its first launches for work, health and fitness. Starting at Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station, the launch of Staytion Lifestyle Centre revitalises the longstanding station retail space and showcases the new blueprint of future retail hubs with a planned tenant mix within MRT stations.
Stellar Lifestyle plans to expand this approach to transit retail to other stations over the next few years, tailoring each location to the unique needs of its local community. The new approach was cemented with the success of other similar hubs, such as Timezone at Orchard MRT and Hive 2.0 at Esplanade MRT.
“Staytion Lifestyle Centre exemplifies how we are continually redefining retail environments to meet evolving consumer demands and benefit the local community,” says Heng, adding that co-working spaces are also available, offering reliable WiFi, meeting nodes, cosy reading nooks and cafés.
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Embracing innovation
Stellar Lifestyle’s business strategy is not limited to physical retail spaces. Heng adds: “We are always on the lookout for new innovations that can help to engage commuters. The main focus is bridging the gap between online and offline experiences, while we have more exciting projects in the pipeline. Currently, our Wink+ app is aimed at blurring the lines between digital and physical [spaces].”
The Wink+ app encourages SMRT commuters to engage with advertisements and other marketing campaigns by scanning the QR codes found on SMRT trains, buses and even taxis. The app allows commuters to interact with the spaces around them along the rail network to earn points that can be converted into e-vouchers.
This approach reflects a larger global trend where transit hubs are evolving into high-tech ecosystems. Stellar Lifestyle’s digital platform, combined with its physical spaces, form a hybrid model that maximises both foot traffic and online engagement, making it a leading player in Singapore’s transit and property sectors.
Aside from its digital efforts, a crucial part of Stellar Lifestyle’s strategy involves partnerships. The company actively works with various stakeholders, including government agencies, retail brands and tech companies. These collaborations allow Stellar Lifestyle to offer a wider range of services and amenities.
For example, in June, Stellar Lifestyle signed a memorandum of understanding with local mail carrier Singapore Post S08 (SingPost) to kick off Singapore’s first postal collection pilot via SMRT-operated trains to explore deploying more postal service points near MRT stations.
The pilot is designed to study the benefits of utilising MRT trains to collect postal items in terms of operational cost efficiencies and carbon emission savings, while offering commuters greater convenience. Businesses located around the rail network can also tap on a convenient and readily available drop-off point for delivery services to meet growing demands in the e-commerce space.
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“Should the pilot be successful, we plan to expand the trial to more train stations across all other SMRT-operated lines, bringing greater convenience to consumers and SMEs by strategically deploying postal service points along key transportation nodes across Singapore,” says Heng.
RedMart plans physical store at Raffles Place MRT
Stellar Lifestyle also introduced innovation in its retail space with the launch of Hive Express earlier this September. This new innovation hub at Raffles Place MRT Station aims to speed up retail innovations within Singapore’s busy transit areas. Building on the success of Hive 2.0, the initiative enhances the commuter experience and gives retailers new opportunities to test smart technologies.
Heng says the Hive innovation hub was launched in 2022. It connected Stellar Lifestyle and its many tenants with partners in the technology ecosystem. The initial services offered to SMEs included content creation, product testing and fulfilment models, such as a digital studio, a demo kitchen and a distribution service point.
Hive 2.0 showcases a lineup of start-ups and partners, including select participants from Stellar Lifestyle’s Stellarate programme. These featured technologies aim to help retailers improve business efficiency and address challenges like rising workforce and logistics costs, while also offering commuters unique retail experiences. Stellarate is Stellar Lifestyle’s innovation programme designed to create a platform for corporations to collaborate with investors on co-innovation and product co-creation, focussing on enhancing operational efficiency and boosting revenues.
Heng says: “Hive Express creates even more opportunities for SMEs to innovate and test retail concepts within train stations. By harnessing new technologies and SMRT’s vast rail network, we can deliver unique retail experiences in compact spaces, enhancing convenience and enriching the daily journeys of commuters. Hive Express reflects Stellar Lifestyle’s commitment to designing dynamic, future-ready environments that serve both commuters and small businesses alike.”
The first partner at Hive Express is RedMart, Singapore’s leading online supermarket. Its inaugural physical storefront at Raffles Place MRT Station will offer essential daily items for busy office workers and commuters, all at the same competitive online prices. Customers can use Lazada’s popular app to pay, allowing the vending machine to dispense their chosen products, effectively merging the convenience of online shopping with easy offline access.
The assortment is tailored to the needs of commuters that frequent Raffles Place MRT, who may be looking for quick access to drinks and snacks, workout fuel and protein, or personal care items to tide them through their day. Commuters will also be able to try RedMart’s affordable and high-quality private label items.
“We understand that consumers on the go are looking for both online and offline touchpoints for greater convenience. We are delighted to partner with Stellar Lifestyle to expand RedMart’s presence beyond the Lazada app to give consumers a taste of the wide range of products that we offer,” says Martin Daney, head of RedMart at Lazada Singapore. “We want to help busy commuters save time by seamlessly integrating grocery shopping into their daily commute, while providing a wide assortment with competitive prices.”
“Over two million people enter our train stations and use the trains every day. It has become part of Singaporeans’ everyday life; the train stations are also part of the community,” says Heng, who emphasised that it is key that SMRT and Stellar Lifestyle focus on the commuter experience, as millions are reliant on it and have high expectations of their transit lifestyle.
“Everything from the timeliness of the trains, to cleanliness, to conveniences available to them so they don’t need to make side-trips to get their everyday essentials. That’s why, from a retail perspective, we aim to transform spaces in and around SMRT stations into lifestyle destinations for the community,”adds Heng.
