Posts are embracing new technologies to diversify revenue sources as the rapidly evolving market takes its toll.
From the United States to Bhutan, Morocco and South Korea, Posts are harnessing the power of innovation to remain relevant. That’s what delegates heard at this week’s Postal Operations Council plenary forum on how the postal sector responded to the past year’s turbulent events.
Being strategic
A global financial crisis and the continuing effects of electronic substitution are pushing operators to take strategic steps to generate new business opportunities and revenues.
In a video message, Jack Potter, the United States’ postmaster general, said Posts need to support business on the Internet. The Post which has a successful partnership with online trader eBay, recently made its own website more e-commerce friendly and developed innovative applications for mobiles such as the iPhone. “We are changing to meet the needs of our customers,” he said. The world’s largest postal service had seen 47 billion letters disappear from letter-carrier satchels over the past four years.
The operator is now focusing on the growing parcel business. “The changing mail mix and lower volumes are a huge revenue challenge. Without major changes, we potentially could face a 200-billion dollar cumulative loss over the next 10 years,” he said.
For its part, Korea Post is also boosting the competitive parcel and EMS business. Through greater automation and new e-commerce initiatives, this Post expects parcels and EMS items to make up 53% of its overall postal business by 2020, compared to 28% today. Letters, accounting for 72% of today’s business, will only make up 47% of it by the end of this decade, acc
More bank for the buck
More Posts are also developing their financial services and capitalizing on customers’ trust to beef up their postal revenues. In Morocco, where only 30% of people have bank accounts, the Post will launch Al Barid Bank in June. The bank will target low-income people at home and abroad. “It is a strategic imperative… in order to preserve and develop our financial services,” explained the Post’s new director general, Amin Benjelloun Touimi.
Swiss Post has been banking on financial services for years, and the financial crisis has proven to be a boon for the operator. Its PostFinance branch generated 60% of group profits in 2009, twice as much as the year before.
At opposite ends of the world, Nigeria and Bhutan are using satellite technology as the communication backbone for a string of e-services that are better integrating customers into the information society.
Risk is a good thing, concluded UPU Director General Edouard Dayan. “Instead of hiding their heads in the sand, Posts are showing a great ability to be innovative.”