Category: Reviews

How to send items with the new ezy2ship platform (www.ezy2ship.net)

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WHAT IS EZY2SHIP?

 

Singpost’s ezy2ship is an online shipment management system leveraging on SingPost’s delivery solutions, e.g mail, courier services.

Currently, as of June 2017, these are the services that users can book from the ezy2ship platform:

  1. Registered Mail
  2. Speedpost (Courier Delivery Service)
  3. POPstation

Not too long ago, at the start of June 2017, Singpost upgraded their new ezy2ship system and interface. Now, it has a more modern and clean design that is in line with their main landing page on www.singpost.com.

They have also shifted from the old www.ezy2ship.com to www.ezy2ship.net. Fret not if you have an existing account with them, your account details are automatically transferred over to the new system.

WHY USE EZY2SHIP?

You enjoy the convenience of being able to book, manage and track your shipments on an online platform. Gone are the days where you have to spend precious time at the post office to ensure you pen down all your shipping details correctly.

Simply put, your visit to the post office becomes much more pleasant as you just need to get your item scanned and accepted by their staff. Those behind in the queue will really thank you for it!

So let’s get right to it shall we?

EZY2SHIP GUIDE

STEP 0: Sign up for EZY2SHIP account

You would first need to sign up with an account on www.ezy2ship.net. Once you are done with the boring bits, we can finally get started!

You would need to login before proceeding with the next step.

STEP 1: Brief Information

  1. Start filling in the Country and Postal Code you’re sending from and to.
  2. Enter your shipment details. (Type of shipment, Value, Measurements)
  3. Click on “ADD PARCEL” to ensure your data is saved. (@SingPost take note of this bug)

STEP 2:  Select Services

Unlike the old ezy2ship platform, the new platform organizes the services into 4 types:

Mail – Choose this for Registered Mail or SMS mail (not available as of this writing)
Express – Speedpost Express
Priority – Speedpost Priority
Standard – Choose this for Speedpost Standard or POPstation

Select your desired service option. Do note that POPstation is now “hidden” under “Standard” option.

We certainly hope SingPost can make the available services more visible. It took us quite a bit of tinkering before figuring out how to send via POPstation.

STEP 3: Shipment Details

Fill in your item description, declared value, etc.

STEP 4: Delivery Details

  1. Fill in the Sender Details
  2. Select sending options (If need POPStation drop off, remember to select “Standard” in Step 2)
  3. Fill in the Recipient Details (Here you select to send to Home/Office address or POPStation)
  4. Return Instructions (@SingPost I don’t think Abandon Shipment makes your users feel easy in case of non-delivery)
  5. Once done, you will see your Order Price Summary. Confirm your details before you proceed.

STEP 5: My Shipment/Payment

Here you will see all the shipments you have created within ezy2ship.

Double check your details are correct and you may proceed to pay.

Currently, they only accept credit cards or debit via eNETS, so get them ready.

STEP 6: Complete Shipment Process

This is where you will see the shipment you just paid.

From here, you can choose to “Print Labels”, “Print Manifest” or “Print Invoice”.

STEP 7: Prepare the Shipping Label for your Shipment

Do you find printing on A4 paper, cutting it out and taping it to the shipment too much hassle?

Why not try out affordable label printing solution that is optimized for ezy2ship labels?

 We offer a simple fuss-free 2 step process where you just print and paste with our self-affixing labels!

Save time and energy! Curious? Get in touch with us now!

Final Thoughts on the new ezy2ship interface

Here is our quick take on the new interface after tinkering with it for some time.

Pros: Clean modern user interface, great readability over the old interface.

Cons: Too many steps involved. POPStation is “hidden” under Speedpost.

While it’s refreshing to see SingPost moving on to streamline their design theme onto their other platforms, we hope they can streamline the ezy2ship shipment creating process to cut down on needless steps and make it more intuitive for end-users.

 

What do you think of the new ezy2ship interface? Feel free to comment and share your thoughts and opinion below!

 

 

A good look at the new “Bumps” feature in Carousell

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Carousell’s bid to generate revenue!

Our favorite Carousell app has finally implemented a spanking new feature just near the start of May 2017.

“Bumps” as they like to call it; helps push your listing up to the top of the marketplace, thereby giving it more visibility, and possibly more sales. It comes at a little cost (about 1 dollar per day for the 3-day Bump), though there are free options available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most people can see this little feature as a way for Carousell to sustain itself through monetizing their in-app service. We think it is a good start for a well-polished app that has been gradually building up for years now. 

However, let us dive deeper to uncover what “Bumps” is all about and perhaps evaluate it further to see where it leads us. Time to go tinkering in the app!

HURRAY to blocking re-listings

In view of this new “Bumps” feature, the Carousell team has implemented a new blocking algorithm in the app to prevent users from putting up another similar listing. You can see it in action below.

This is an important and a much-needed feature as these illegitimate bumps are a direct competitor to the official “Bumps” that is in place. Prior to this, users have to report spammers and thereafter the admins have to take action. This is all too time-consuming. So kudos to the Carousell team for coming up with the new blocking algorithm!

Humans Vs Machines

But how effective is this system, you ask? Who comes out on top? Well, we have been doing some controlled tests, coupled with our keen observation of the marketplace. Here is what we have seen:

  1. Legitimate variants of a product can be wrongly blocked.

Specifically, if your title, description, images are very similar, there is a chance it might be blocked even if they are essentially different variants of a product. This can be quite frustrating for people as currently there is no way to return back to edit after you hit the “Sell” button.

Perhaps the Carousell team can consider a friendlier option as it’s quite frustrating to start from scratch and figure out what’s wrong.

  1. Some users have found the loophole in the blocking algorithm

From our observations, they do this by carefully changing just one variable (title, description, images) to essentially get a relist of essentially the same item.

  1. Dropping price to get free “Bumps” every 7 days.

While this is a legitimate way to bump up your listing, the 10% price dropping mechanism does not really work. Users can simply bring the price back up after getting the free “Bumps” and the “Bumps” is still in place. Perhaps the Carousell team can improve the algorithm to factor in this.

The War on Re-listings a.k.a. illegitimate “Bumps”

It is quite clear how these illegitimate “bumps” can undermine Carousell’s brand new “Bumps” feature. Legitimate sellers might see no reason to purchase paid “Bumps” if their competitors can keep relisting for free by circumventing the blocking algorithm.

Hence, it would be interesting to see how the Carousell team tackles illegitimate bumps and users trying their luck to circumvent the new blocking algorithm. Perhaps improving the blocking algorithm and taking harsher actions against users who consistently flout the rules despite warning?

Final Thoughts

To be fair, a shiny new feature always comes with some specks of imperfection here and there. We certainly hope the Carousell team will resolve these issues over time. But it is really great to see a new system in place that makes the marketplace more friendly and usable for all.

For now, it would be interesting to speculate the direction “Bumps” will take in the future. We suspect they might even offer a permanent “Bumps” that will stay on top of the marketplace for a premium price.

What is your take on Carousell’s new “Bumps” feature? Any interesting observations? Feel free to share your comments below.