FedEx today issued an open invitation to the world’s postal operators to form partnerships andjointly grow in cross-border e-commerce.
The US integrator wants to take advantage of the fast growth in international e-commerce bycooperating with postal operators to offer “a full service package”, Carl Asmus, vice president ofInternational Marketing for FedEx Services, told the World Mail & Express Europe conference inBrussels. The long-serving executive is responsible for the development and management of the FedExglobal product portfolio as well as marketing support for FedEx’s International division.
Highlighting the growth potential of cross-border e-commerce, Asmus said the global internetretail market is expected to reach $500 billion by 2012. There would be 2.2 billion internet usersglobally by 2013 compared to 1.5 billion in 2008. The big growth regions are Asia, Latin Americaand Africa rather than the existing large markets of North America and Europe.
In response to this trend, US retailers, many of whom have very low or no international onlinesales, were now also seeking to sell internationally, he explained. US outbound e-commerceparcel sales were worth $2.8 billion in 2009, he noted.
But significant barriers to cross-border e-commerce remain, including issues of internationalpayments, cost control and local legal conditions as well as the need for a “robust” returnsservice.
Postal operators will be central to international e-commerce as a low-cost delivery network,Asmus stressed. About 70-75% of volumes will go through the postal network and only about 25-30%through express networks, he predicted.
“We want to team up with Posts to provide a bundled solution for retailers,” Asmus told anaudience of European postal managers. “The only way that can be done reliably is through acombination of express and local Posts as a bundled package. This is a huge growthopportunity.”
He added: “We will look to talk with Posts to develop solutions. We can see where the market isgoing and we are looking forward to working with the local Posts.”
Postal operators that partnered with FedEx would benefit from access to a worldwide network witha large sales force, he stressed.
In the USA, FedEx offers a day-definite home delivery service covering the entire country andoffering a range of product features.
