Online postage not for NZ Post
Britain’s Royal Mail has launched a service that lets customers do away with stamps and pay for postage online, but NZ Post is unimpressed and doesn’t expect to follow suit anytime soon.
Royal Mail customers can select the right amount for their letter or parcel and pay by debit or credit card or via a prepay account.
They are then able to print a unique barcode directly on to an envelope or on to a label or paper that can be attached to the item before it is posted. The barcode acts as proof of payment, like a stamp.
“We launched this service in response to demands from the general public,” says Royal Mail’s marketing director, Alex Batchelor.
“Online postage gives customers more choice and flexibility in the way they pay to send their mail.”
NZ Post’s general manager of stamps, Ivor Master, says NZ Post looked at introducing a similar service, “but after consideration decided to offer some other, equally innovative services instead”.
He says Royal Mail’s online service can be quite cumbersome for customers.
“While our back-end systems would be up to offering such a service, we decided at this stage it is not practical and wouldn’t necessarily add any value to the online products we provide.”
NZ Post might reconsider if it saw strong market demand but would probably “streamline” any similar offering, he says.
“It may be something we could look at trialling with some smaller customers in future.”
NZ Post customers can go online to design and pay for booklets of their own personalised stamps that are then posted to them.
This service went live last September and is now starting to prove popular with businesses as well as consumers, Mr Masters says.
“We know that businesses are now producing postage stamps containing their logos or examples of their products or services,” he says.
In November, NZ Post expects to debut “customised advertising labels”. These will let businesses personalise post-paid envelopes with their own brands or labels by going online to a secure section of the company’s website.
Mr Masters says this will mean businesses could alter the look of their mail-outs for short periods, without incurring high printing costs.
“This has real benefits to business customers, especially in adding impact to specific direct marketing campaigns.”
Royal Mail lost its monopoly on postal deliveries in Britain in January and the state-owned operator is fighting hard against private competition as the industry faces some of the biggest changes in its 350-year history.
Its “Internet stamps” cost the same as normal postage.
Consumers can choose from a full range of postal options, from first class to international services, and can also print out a variety of forms online, such as customs declaration forms.
