The IPC Global Postal Industry Report 2020 Key Findings, published on December 10, has revealed that the shift from mail to parcels has further accelerated due to the Covid-19 crisis, with parcel and express mail revenues growing by €6.6bn (US$8bn) in 2019. Mail revenue grew by just €0.3bn (US$0.4bn) in the same period.
On aggregate, total postal industry revenue reached €427.2bn (US$519.2bn) in 2019, up €6.3bn (US$7.7bn) on 2018 results. Mail accounted for just under one-third of total industry revenue in 2019, while global e-commerce sales have grown by 20% per year on average since 2009 and reached €1.8tn (US$2.2tn) in 2019. According to IPC, before the pandemic global online sales were predicted to roughly double between 2019 and 2024, but recent trends suggest the Covid-19 crisis will pull this timeline forward.
Holger Winklbauer, CEO of IPC, stated, “E-commerce parcels and packets continue to drive postal growth. The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns have uplifted e-commerce further and fast-tracked other digital trends. This crisis is accelerating the structural shift from mail to parcels across the postal industry.”
Other key trends reported by posts during the Covid-19 crisis include: an increase in B2C deliveries across most product segments, from grocery to garden, although trends shifted as lockdowns evolved; local SMEs sent more parcels; deliveries to the home increased; and postal webshops saw online sales rise as footfall in post offices fell.
Winklbauer concluded, “Posts have faced many operational challenges due to the pandemic, but were quick to respond. Despite the disruption, recent IPC research reveals that while in lockdown, close to four-fifths of surveyed consumers were satisfied with the delivery speed of their online orders and noticed little or no disruption to postal services.”