The International Post Corporation (IPC) has revealed that 11.8 million tracked items were transported through its Interconnect network in November 2020, the first time since the launch of network, more than 10 million tracked items passed through in a single month. However, this record was quickly surpassed as December saw 15.6 million items.
The IPC notes this performance was partly driven by the increase in e-commerce volumes at the end of the year (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas period, etc.) and the overall growth of e-commerce during the 2020 pandemic.
With a total volume of 100 million items, 2020 marked an important milestone for the network with IPC noting the growth in parcel volumes was both structural and substantial. It also highlighted that an ever-increasing volume of traffic is being migrated from other postal networks to Interconnect. Furthermore, the number of cross-border posts-to-posts links in the network has increased from 1,981 in December 2019 to 3,216 in December 2020. With new posts likely to join in 2021, the growth is expected to continue.
Interconnect is an undertaking of 30 posts worldwide, which joined forces to offer e-retailers and consumers a reliable end-to-end cross-border postal delivery service, and a range of solutions that are crucial for the success of today’s e-commerce businesses. Through the network, participating posts are committed to receive and deliver items from each other according to jointly agreed competitive and customer-oriented standards and key performance indicators.