UPS is actively seeking more partnerships with postal operators to benefit from strong B2Cgrowth around the world, according to a senior executive.
The integrator, which recently said it wanted to double international profits by 2016 andannounced plans for $500 million investment in its international network to increase capacity forfuture growth, already has various postal partnerships around the world. Major partners includePoste Italiane in Europe and Canada Post.
But UPS is now looking to sign further agreements in response to the strong growth of e-commerceand B2C parcel shipments worldwide. B2C already accounts for about 30% of its volumes in the USAand the company is making a big growth push in the segment through the launch of its ‘My Choice’service which offers consumers various added-value delivery options.
“Posts have a final-mile delivery competence that integrators do not have,” Imad Nusheiwat, UPSdirector of international government and postal solutions, told the World Postal Business Forum atthe Post-Expo trade fair in Stuttgart this week. Posts are suffering from falling mail volumes butare seeing e-commerce growth. Moreover, B2C is outgrowing B2B at a rate to 3-to-1, he pointedout.
UPS expects similar B2C growth patterns internationally as in the USA, he commented. “The postalcollaboration programme is one of our direct responses for B2C growth,” he explained.
Nusheiwat presented a case study of a successful cooperation between UPS and an unnamed $20billion postal operator with 14,000 retail outlets in a market where UPS had only a small marketshare and unused airlift capacity.
After careful planning and implementation, the collaboration had enabled UPS to offer a premiumexpress service in the country through the postal operator which in turn was using UPS forinternational delivery, he said. In the B2C sector, UPS agents delivered shipments in main urbanareas of the country while the postal operator delivered to addresses in secondary areas, heexplained.
