This building could be the future of ecommerce logistics in Southeast Asia

Ecommerce logistics startups now have yet another reason to up their game. Having entered the market earlier this year, Singpost’s ecommerce division is now living up to the hype with the development of a S$182 million (US$145 million) eCommerce Logistics Hub, funded internally by SingPost Group (SGX:S08). The company expects the hub to be ready by the second half of 2016. SingPost is the national postage service in Singapore that’s also privatized and publicly-listed.

According to an official statement, the three-storey hub will be “the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, equipped with state-of-the-art technology”. Here’s a rundown of all the goodies the 553,000 square ft building will hold:

• Fully-automated parcel sorting facility on the ground floor
• Two modern warehousing floors above
• Adjoining 8-storey office block to house SingPost’s local and regional logistics operations
• Parking facility on the rooftop for 270 vehicles
• State-of-the-art system that will be able to handle up to 100,000 parcels per day

Dr. Wolfgang Baier, Group CEO of SingPost, believes that the hub will “boost Singapore’s aspiration to be the region’s ecommerce hub.” In the statement, he adds:

This Hub is also an integral part of SingPost Group’s strategy as we expand our ecommerce logistics business and capitalize on the fast-growing ecommerce market here in Singapore and the region. With this critical infrastructure in place, it will radically transform our full range of ecommerce logistics capabilities, across warehousing, fulfillment, sorting and delivery. It will also enable SingPost to offer very cost-efficient fully integrated efulfilment solutions to our customers in a scalable manner.

With the establishing of the hub, SingPost is all but ready to start expanding their presence across the ecommerce logistics market in Asia Pacific – estimated to grow to more than US$175.24 billion by 2016 – and Singapore Economic Development Board’s director of logistics Lee Eng Keat agrees.

“The establishment of SingPost’s regional e-fulfillment hub will help pre-position Singapore as the leading regional hub for brands and retailers looking to use ecommerce to access the growing markets in the region,” he says.

Already, SingPost has established 16 warehouses in the region – up from 12 earlier in March – and according to its VP Group Communications Tay Poh Choo, “will continue to invest in strengthening our infrastructure going forward.”

In Southeast Asia, SingPost competes against aCommerce, Anchanto, TA-Q-BIN, and others. But with aCommerce downsizing in Singapore and SingPost’s sheer scale, it has an upper hand in its country of birth.

See: Here’s SingPost’s grand plan to rule ecommerce in Asia