Market Trends of Postal Services Industry
E-commerce Opens Opportunities for Postal Services
E-commerce represents a tremendous opportunity for postal services as consumers become increasingly comfortable ordering items online from emerging e-commerce platforms, and traditional brick-and-mortar outlets are also transitioning to digital environments. As the volume of online sales increases, e-commerce providers are seeking cost-effective channels for the delivery and collection of purchased items. Postal services, with their long-established national networks and experience in last-mile delivery, are emerging as effective partners in this regard. In Kenya, for example, a partnership between online marketplace Jumia and the Postal Corporation of Kenya enables online shoppers to collect items they purchase on Jumia from their nearest post office.
However, many global postal services organizations are not equipped to take advantage of this growth in e-commerce. While B2C eCommerce is growing at a global rate of 17%, parcel volumes among postal services organizations have been growing at less than 5%. Part of the issue is the low adoption of digital technologies as core business and innovation drivers among low-performing postal services organizations. Where digital adoption is high, innovations inevitably emerge. The launch of mPost by Kenya's postal services, for example, has turned every mobile phone into a formal postal address, enabling people to access letters and parcels from anywhere in the country.
United Kingdom Boost the Postal Delivery Service by Drones
The COVID-19 epidemic is redefining how much the post and parcel sector needs autonomous delivery systems.
United Kindom: In the coming three years, Royal Mail will establish 50 new "postal drone routes" as part of its increased usage of drones for delivery. The move, which is subject to Civil Aviation Authority permission, would give rural communities speedier and more practical services thanks to cooperation with the logistics drone business Windracers. The Isles of Scilly, Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands, and the Hebrides are among the initial destinations for the new service. For the next three years, Royal Mail said it plans to utilize up to 200 drones, and eventually more than 500, to service every part of the UK. Four drone tests have been carried out by Royal Mail over the past 18 months, including flights over the Scottish Isle of Mull, the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall, and the Orkney Islands' Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay. Between Tingwall Airport in Lerwick and Unst, a 50-mile journey each way, test flights for the new service have been conducted. Letters and packages are subsequently carried by the neighborhood postman or lady using the drones employed in the study, which can carry up to 100kg of mail for two daily return trips between the islands.
