eBay improves Singapore service

   eBay has launched a new shipping service in collaboration with Singapore Post (SingPost) and the U. S. Postal Service in the hopes to improve both delivery and tracking of lightweight goods moving between the United States and Singapore.
   The service, named ePac, is eBay’s first postal service partnership in Southeast Asia and its third partnership globally. The service was introduced to boost cross-border trade which eBay calls its fastest-growing segment.
   ePac is a two part system, covering the physical delivery of lightweight goods under two kilograms between the postal services in each country alongside an online shipping tool from eBay that unifies a tracking system between the postal services and eBay’s own tracking system.
   The ePac tool generates its own tracking code so that products can be uniformly tracked along the entire route.
   eBay says that the service reduces shipping time from Singapore to the United States to between six and eight days. The service also allows buyers and sellers to track shipments at any time with a single tracking number, which eBay says will enhance visibility.
   Before the ePac offering, eBay said sellers often had to use airmail which could take as long as three weeks from the time an order is placed to when it is received, also requiring multiple tracking numbers from multiple carriers along the way.
   The company said its first cross-border shipping service, ePacket, was launched in September 2010 in mainland China through a partnership with China Post and the U.S. Postal Service, followed by its e-Express launched in Hong Kong between Hong Kong Post and the U.S. Postal Service.
   For 2010, eBay reported that its cross-border trade volume on its services from China and Hong Kong totaled $4 billion. — Geoff Whiting