What are the International Delivery Options from Singapore?

Singapore is a small island with approximately 48 km from one end to the other. With approximately 5.9 million population, the market size is relatively small. Expanding to the overseas is an inevitable choice for eCommerce wanting to expand their exposure.

One of the challenges of meeting overseas demand is the logistics. What are the delivery options available in Singapore for eMerchants wanting to post items internationally? In this article, we will share some information.

POSTAL OPTION

As the name Postal suggests, this option is available through the Post Office. In Singapore, it will be Singapore Post, in United Kingdom, it will be Royal Mail, in USA, it will USPS etc. Each of the country Post Office are independent from one another, every country Post Office have their own protocol.

All the Post Offices within the United Nation countries, join a common a body, United Postal Union (UPU), to agree on common terms of exchange for postal relative issues between countries. One of the vital roles of UPU is to recommend logistic practices for international mails and packages between the member countries. As a layman, one may view this as an arbitrage exchange of services, where the destination country postal work will help to deliver package from the origin, and the origin will in return help to deliver the destination country's packages when it arrives at the origin country.

International methods or modes available in the postal sytem for Singapore includes: -

  1. Ordinary Airmail
  2. Registered Airmail
  3. Epacket or Epac
  4. SpeedPost Priority
  5. SpeedPost Express

Method (a) to (c) are meant for light weight packages that is below 2kg, with the sum length, height and width below 90 cm and length not exceeding 60 cm. Method (d) to (c) are able to handles packages with bigger dimension and weight up to 30kg for some destination.

Ordinary Airmail, Registered Airmail, and Epacket are the common preferred posting mode, accounting for more than 75% of the packages posted internationally. These 3 modes are relatively cheaper, able to handle delivery to almost every addresses worldwide, and in the event of unfortunately undelivery due to addressing issues, unclaimed, duties & taxes etc., it is will usually be returned to origin postage free. For SpeedPost packages, there will be return postage charges in the an unfortunate event of undelivery.

COMMERCIAL OPTION

For commercial option, the operators are private companies. The commonly known top companies in this sphere include.

  1. DHL Express (DHL)
  2. Federal Express (FedEx)
  3. United Parcel Service (UPS)

These 3 companies have extensive network worldwide, having office presence in many countries. The core advantage of sending via these 3 companies is speed. Packages send through them will usually be delivered within 7 days, assuming no customs clearance exception.

eMerchants tend to prefer this option for content with higher value, a desire for better tracking, with the requirement to purchase additional insurance coverage for the content.

COMPARISION

We have a comparison table listing the features for the methods mentioned in this article. Click here for the overview.

The Postal Connect is able to help eMerchants manage all your packages positng through Ordinary Airmail, Registered Airmail, Epacket, SpeedPost, DHL, and FedEx. Click on the button below to reach out to us to discuss.