Singapore Post adds digital, hybrid, e-commerce services
Singapore Post is continuing its strengthening of digital, hybrid and e-commerce services as it looks to remain “relevant in the digital age”. The company has just launched two services for consumer and e-commerce retail markets, which aim to encourage mail volumes.
The first is a photobook service that allows consumers to create books from their photographs for printing and shipment by SingPost. Called “Say-Cheese”, it has been developed by SingPost subsidiary DataPost Pte Ltd.
The company has also teamed up with online payment giant PayPal to launch a new e-commerce platform called EZ Suite, which offers easy tools for smaller businesses to create an online retail presence, building and hosting an online store, with payments managed by PayPal and shipping provided by SingPost.
Other projects in the pipeline include a new digital mailbox platform – effectively a revamp of SingPost’s Vbox service launched in 2004 as a paid-for “travelling mailbox” service – and a regional expansion of its online bill presentment and shipping service Vpost.
SingPost, which launched its Vpost portal as far back as 1999, has been building its regional presence in logistics and e-commerce in recent years, as it seeks to make the most of booming online retail activity in the Asia-Pacific region. The region already boasts 44% of the world’s internet users, with penetration rates heading rapidly toward 70% in many areas.
The company acquired online luxury goods marketplace Clout Shoppe in February, which it intends to expand by adding more retailers and selling to countries outside Singapore.
Say-Cheese
SingPost’s new hybrid mail service Say-Cheese provides consumers with web-based software to put together books from their personal photographs, along with a digital printing and shipment services.
Users can use basic picture editing tools and order hardcover or paperback books with 24 or 48 pages at prices starting at S$35.90 ($29.60 USD).
“Say-Cheese is a cost-effective, efficient way for consumers who want a unique keepsake of memories,” said Lim Cho Tat, vice president of hybrid mail for SingPost. “It is easy to use, just upload your photos, edit them and create the photobook at the comfort of your home. It is then printed in our secure premises and delivered right to your designated
doorstep.”
EZ Suite
EZ Suite aims to foster growth in SME e-commerce volumes
EZsuite is specifically geared toward building e-commerce mail volumes in the SME market, offering smaller retailers an easier way to establish an online presence – and existing small online retailers an easier way to manage an online presence.
The platform allows customers to create a website from more than 100 designs, track inventories, issue sales reports, and integrate payment and shipping systems with their new online store.
Choo Kum Seng, SingPost’s assistant vice president of sales said the service allowed SMEs to connect with consumers in 190 markets, using more than 20 currencies through the PayPal payment gateway.
“EZ Suite offers a single interface for the online retailers to choose from a wide range of local and international delivery solutions from SingPost,” he said.
