Attendees at the 2018 IPC Annual Conference in Vancouver, Canada, expect cross-border e-commerce shoppers to become more and more demanding when it comes to the speed of deliveries.
While the majority of participants believed that current consumer expectations for cross-border delivery from a neighboring country range between two (37%) and five (45%) days, they expect this to evolve toward a one-day delivery standard (57%) within five years’ time. Survey participants included CEOs and senior executives from leading postal operators from America, Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Holger Winklbauer, IPC CEO, said, “The postal industry is in a fascinating stage of transformation. With the emergence of new technologies, specifically smartphone-based, and business models, such as crowd-shipping platforms, posts and their traditional competitors are facing disruption.
“These innovations are blurring traditional boundaries and lower down entry barriers to the delivery market, creating new forms of competition. The in-conference poll clearly demonstrated that postal executives expect consumers to demand a much higher delivery speed in five years’ time, when ordering goods from a neighboring country. Facing these challenges, postal operators have to be creative and innovative and focus on these evolving consumers’ needs.”
Meeting the needs of large e-retailers’ customers remains another key priority for postal operators. As highlighted in the latest IPC Cross-border Shoppers’ Survey, giant e-retailers such as Amazon, eBay and Alibaba account for two thirds of cross-border online purchases. Results from an in-conference poll showed that for two-thirds of participants, the launch of delivery networks by large e-retailers is seen as one of the main industry disrupters.
In this context, postal operators reiterated the importance of reinforcing cooperation to enhance the cross-border experience and thus, respond to cross-border customers’ needs.