European postal operators should grasp the opportunities offered by electronic communications ande-commerce and also develop more customer-focused added-value services and innovations in response
to the decline in traditional mail volumes, according to experts and customers.Those were the key messages at last week’s annual conference of the PostEurop association inBled, Slovenia, held under the slogan “From Crisis To Opportunities”. The event was attended bysome 150 delegates from European public postal operators and other postal experts, includingCEP-Research.
The European postal industry has seen a decline in volumes in recent years which has speededup this year due to the recession and electronic substitution, secretary general Ingemar Perssontold delegates. Mail volumes are down as much as 10% in some European countries this year. But headded optimistically: “In this crisis we can also see new opportunities.”
Outlining the potential of electronic communications and e-commerce for postal operators,Paul Donohoe, head of the UPU electronic services programme, pointed out that parcels and financialservices had been more resilient during the crisis than letters due to the growth opportunitiespresented by e-commerce.
The UPU aimed to support postal operators through its e-services programme, with activitiessuch as e-identity certification, secure communications between Posts and the creation of the ‘.post’ internet domain as a secure space for electronic postal services, he said.
Secure electronic communications would be vital for ‘e-government’ activities being plannedin many countries, Donohoe explained. Posts could position themselves as “neutral partners” forofficial communications and offer services such as ‘registered e-mail’. In addition, hybrid mail,combining electronic creation of mail with physical delivery, was attractive to large mailers andcould also be used for new consumer products such as personalised postcards, he said.
In the parcels sector, e-commerce was forecast to continue growing strongly over the comingdecade and this would require physical delivery services, Donohoe stressed. Posts could offer arange of services ranging from e-shopping portals to fulfilment services (including payment,logistics, delivery and returns). However, the trend from mail to parcels would also require “strong thinking about re-shaping the delivery network for e-commerce deliveries”, he commented.
Speaking from the customer perspective, Alfred Köbe, chairman of the European Postal UsersGroup and director of the European distance-sellers association EMOTA, said customers expectedpostal operators to make deliveries within the agreed time period, to be able to make short-noticechanges if necessary, to ensure that at most 2% of items were not delivered and to provide fast andclear information about undeliverable items.
Posts could compensate for the expected overall drop in mail volumes by offering moreadded-value services in addition to the basic collection, sorting, transportation and delivery,Köbe stressed. These included time-definite deliveries, volume consolidation for last-miledelivery, and activities such as data management, customer response management and informationreports. Posts and customers should work more closely together to support print media, heemphasised.
Highlighting broader trends, consultant Derek Osborn stressed that many industries wereseeing a move from production-driven supply to customer-driven demand, based on more choice, 24/7on-demand availability and media integration. Posts should respond to the changing market by “breaking rules and challenging tradition”, taking ideas from other sectors and developinginnovations, he declared.
In a series of interactive polls during the conference, most delegates said theirorganisations are currently looking at innovations and opportunities to integrate electronicservices and e-commerce into their activities but admitted they lacked resources or skills to seizethe opportunities by themselves. Most are working with partners in this area.
