Parcel firms must do more to innovate to retain their value and focus more on customers amid adeclining market, a senior European industry manager said at Post-Expo today.
The European parcels market could decline by about 11% in volumes and about 10%-12% inrevenues this year, Carl-Gerold Mende, head of Austrian Post’s parcels logistics division, told theWorld Postal Business conference at Post-Expo today. “For the first time since 1976 the parcelmarket is not growing,” he stated.
At present, there is a large risk of a price war in the European parcels market sincecustomers are more price-sensitive, there is pressure on volumes and parcels appears to be becominga more cyclical business, he said. Looking ahead, however, the sector has the opportunity tobenefit from e-commerce growth as well as from downtrading from express to cheaper parcel deliveryservices, he added.
But Mende criticised how the express and parcels sector has built up large-scale capacityover the years. “The capacity has devalued the service we are offering to customers,” he declared. “ We need to address the issue of capacity and how valuable our service is. That is how we aremissing the boat. Everyone is buying volume from competitors. The only result is that we aredevaluing ourselves.”
Instead, parcel operators must move away from “industrial production thinking” focused onlyon shippers, and focus more on customers, Mende said. “The industry must become morecustomer-driven and develop products and services focused on customer needs.”
