Mail and Express sector disruption continues to provide challenges and opportunities

Balancing the challenges and opportunities of disruption remains a critical focus for attendees at the recent World Mail & Express Europe conference 2016 in Poland. Over 200 international cross industry professionals explored how to stay ahead and profit from disruption in seemingly declining mail and growing e-commerce markets.

From a mail perspective, 80% of delegates expected mail market volumes to decline by a further 15-20% in the next 5 years, thus impacting revenues. For postal service economics, a potential response could be to lower costs by reducing delivery frequency. This would seem unlikely given universal service obligations, therefore new revenue opportunities need to be exploited.

But the outlook wasn’t completely negative. Attendees recognised that letter mail is relevant to tomorrow’s communications market and 64% saw postal operator diversification into digital communication as a natural progression in their capabilities.

With regards to the e-commerce revolution, 56% of the attendees agreed that the parcel delivery market is facing a potential disruption on a scale similar to the impact of digital on the mail market. 51% of the audience believed that e-commerce will compensate for falling letter volume. Interestingly nearly half the audience thought that competition was too intense in the parcels market for mail operators to compete.

The key questions for everyone continue to be a focus on developing a better understanding of the trends for increasing parcel volume opportunities, competitive advantage and how these can be exploited.

For more data on this article or insight into the mail and express market, please contact [email protected] or visit www.triangle.eu.com