Singapore Post launches simplified shipping service for SMEs
Singapore Post has launched a new simplified prepaid shipping service designed with small businesses in mind. Singapore Post has launched a new simplified prepaid shipping service designed with small businesses in mind.
With profits down sharply in its latest fiscal quarter, the Post believes small businesses provide its parcel services with a particularly promising opportunity for growth.
The Speedpost SaverPac Prepaid service will base pricing on weight alone, rather than dimensional weight, while also promising no surcharges for delivery to remote areas. For small businesses, this could mean up to a third lower shipping costs, SingPost suggests.
Offering free packaging, the service is available for shipments up to 3kg in weight, sent to 10 major international countries – Australia, China, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, the UK and USA.
SingPost said the service would provide the same reliability as its Speedpost EMS express service, with the same one-to-four-day transit time though at a lower cost.
The Singaporean postal service sees small and medium-sized businesses as a key part of the local economy that has recently been looking to overseas markets for their products.
Dr Wolfgang Baier, group chief executive, said SingPost would be able to further strengthen its offering for small and medium-sized enterprises as it expands its own presence within the Asia-Pacific region.
He said: “The SME segment is an important one to SingPost. SingPost is acutely aware of the changing needs of its valued SME customers especially since SingPost itself is expanding and making inroads into the region.”
The launch of the Speedpost SaverPac service comes shortly after SingPost launched a new e-commerce platform for small businesses, the EZ Suite, which helps firms connect with customers through the Internet by setting up their own low-cost websites.
SingPost also launched a new import service back in July, called Speedpost Customised Import, to assist SMEs in shipping items to China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
Results
Over the weekend, SingPost revealed its latest financial results, for the second quarter of its fiscal year, showing growth in revenues but stronger growth in costs, reducing profits.
In the three months up to the end of September, revenues grew 2.4% compared to the same period last year, to S$140.9m ($112m USD). Group expenses rose 7.4%, particularly with increases in labour costs, to S$111.8m ($89.2m USD).
Net profits fell sharply, by 22.5% to S$30.6m ($24.4m USD), although excluding one-off costs as the company expands its business in the Asian Pacific region, profits were down 10.1% to S32.8m ($26.1m USD).
SingPost has seen its mail division growing, with domestic mail contributing to a 1.7% year-on-year increase in mail revenues, to S$93.8m ($74.8m USD), while logistics revenues were up 10.8% to S$53.1m ($42.3m USD) thanks to e-commerce services. Retail activities were steady on S$17m ($13.5m USD) for the quarter, with a decline in counter services following the sale of SingPost’s SpeedCash business in March offset by increased sales of retail products and from the Clout Shoppe online shopping portal.
Commenting on the results, Baier said it was “imperative” to keep investing in order to transform and diversify services to “survive the changing postal landscape”.
“The postal landscape is changing fast, and worldwide many posts are struggling. It is just not enough to conduct business as usual,” he said.
SingPost will be continuing to invest in technology and its operational capabilities, added its Group CEO.
