Brazil, Russia, China only major mail markets showing growth, says UK study

Mail volumes have fallen by 18% in the world’s 17 major markets since 2006, most rapidly in the UK, Italy, Spain and North America. The finding came within a new report from the UK’s postal regulator, Ofcom, which uses UPU figures to chart international mail trends from 2006 to 2011 among countries most comparable to the UK.

While mail volumes grew slightly in recent years within emerging economies of Brazil, Russia and China, among the world’s other major mail markets volumes fell by 67bn items between 2006 and 2011.

In the UK, Italy and Spain mail volume fell more than 25%, while in North America volumes fell 23% during that time, although as the world’s largest market, the United States had the largest volume decline in terms of mailpieces. The UK had the largest absolute volume decline in Europe.

Russia has seen the biggest growth in mail volumes in the last few years, up 12%.

Mail revenues among the 17 major nations studied fell by an average of 5% since 2006, with the United States worst off with a 12% drop in mail revenue.

China, Russia and Brazil were the only major markets where mail revenues grew from 2006 to 2011. China achieved an 86% increase in its mail revenues over the study period, while Brazil saw the largest monetary gain in revenues, of GBP 1.3bn.

Sweden and the Netherlands generated the most revenue per capita.

Sending and receiving

Ofcom said for sending standard letters, the UK was among the cheapest country in the major European nations reviewed, but the UK and Japan were among the most expensive for sending small letters.

The US and France have the highest proportion of consumers paying their bills via the post – 58% of Americans and 47% of French consumers sending payment through the mail within a month of being surveyed, compared to 22% in the UK.

The French receive the most mail per person, according to the study, with the average person receiving 14.9 items per week compared to 9.6 in the US and 7.1 in the UK.

Chinese consumers send the most mail, each sending on average 8.3 items per month compared to 6.7 in Spain, 6.2 in the US, 5.2 in the UK, 4.8 in Germany and 2.3 in Japan.

Ofcom suggested that the lower availability of the Internet within China affected the results.

Parcels

The Ofcom study, which also looked at international trends in other forms of communication including TV, Radio, Internet and Telecoms, only touched on the growing popularity of parcels.

According to the Ofcom review, a higher proportion of British consumers are receiving large parcels than in any other major mail market.

Some 34% of UK consumers claimed to have received at least one large parcel in the past month, just above the 33% in Germany.

For small parcels, France was the highest with 53% of consumers receiving one within a month of the survey. Italians received the fewest parcels, with only 17% receiving small parcels and 13% large parcels within a month of the poll.