What Is ePacket Delivery?
ePacket delivery is a shipping option offered by merchants in China and Hong Kong. It originated as an agreement between the US Postal Service (USPS) and Hong Kong Post, and has now expanded to included dozens of countries. It allows for faster ePacket delivery of products coming from China and Hong Kong to a number of countries.
Pros and Cons of Epacket Shipping
There are good and bad sides to Epacket, here’s the 80/20.
Pros
It’s relatively cheap. Neither you, nor your customers, want to shell out $40 shipping on a $5 fidget spinner.
It’s also faster than standard methods of shipping from China.
Obviously, it’s going to depend on what you’re shipping, but packages to the United States can arrive in 10-20 days. That’s not Prime fast, but you’re not Amazon.
People don’t mind waiting for your ecom products when it’s difficult to get them somewhere else (which is what your store should be trying to do).
It also offers package tracking. Trust me, you want this. Because these packages take longer than things bought on Amazon or Wal-Mart, customers want to be able to track their purchases.
Faster shipping increases ecommerce conversion rates. Every time.
Pros and Cons of Epacket Shipping
There are good and bad sides to Epacket, here’s the 80/20.
Pros
It’s relatively cheap. Neither you, nor your customers, want to shell out $40 shipping on a $5 fidget spinner.
It’s also faster than standard methods of shipping from China.
Obviously, it’s going to depend on what you’re shipping, but packages to the United States can arrive in 10-20 days. That’s not Prime fast, but you’re not Amazon. People aren’t price shopping when they see your crazy Facebook video ads and click through to your site.
People don’t mind waiting for your ecom products when it’s difficult to get them somewhere else (which is what your store should be trying to do).
It also offers package tracking. Trust me, you want this. Because these packages take longer than things bought on Amazon or Wal-Mart, customers want to be able to track their purchases.
Faster shipping increases ecommerce conversion rates. Every time.
Cons
Not every product can be shipped via Epacket, meaning you’ll need to find some other way to get it to the customer. Or you just don’t sell the product, which is nearly always a better option.
Also, some products only offer Epacket shipping to the United States. If you want to sell David Hasselhoff bobblehead dolls to Germans (who love Hasselhoff for some reason), you may not have the Epacket option.
Not every country is available via ePacket.
Not every product can be shipped via Epacket, meaning you’ll need to find some other way to get it to the customer. Or you just don’t sell the product, which is nearly always a better option.
Also, some products only offer Epacket shipping to the United States. If you want to sell David Hasselhoff bobblehead dolls to Germans (who love Hasselhoff for some reason), you may not have the Epacket option.
Not every country is available via ePacket.
How Can ePacket Shipping Help My E-commerce Business?
- Relatively cheap shipping fee: Shipping fees impact sales significantly. ePacket enables sellers to utilize this global courier service with relatively less expensive shipping costs.
- Epacket supports e-commerce between East Asia and the US: ePacket simply creates more opportunities and greatly influences globalization.
- Tracking & shortened delivery time: An ePacket can be delivered in as little as 7 days, and if it takes longer, you can simply track it online to see its status.
- Dropshipping: Given that most products are manufactured in China, sellers can dropship products inexpensively. ePacket basically opens a lot of opportunities for sellers to reach out to more customers from over 35 countries.
- Free returns on undelivered items: This feature simply allows sellers to easily obtain an undelivered item and enables them to smoothly issue refunds to customers.
