Preliminary data from International Post Corporation (IPC) indicates that postal operators worldwide saw a revenue decrease of 0.9% on average in 2022, demonstrating resilience following strong post-Covid growth and the overall challenging environment.
Holger Winklbauer, CEO of IPC, commented, “Preliminary results for 2022 show that continuous efforts of posts to enhance performance are paying off. However, the current challenging market conditions, with increased competition as well as slower growth of e-commerce due to the cost-of-living crisis, call for even more efforts from posts to meet the needs of e-commerce consumers.”
Postal industry growth continues to be sustained by ongoing demand for B2C e-commerce logistics, as shown by posts delivering more packets and parcels to online shoppers around the world. Despite the economic uncertainty, slower e-commerce growth and the cost-of-living crisis, parcel volumes remain above pre-pandemic levels. To meet this demand and further improve last-mile efficiency and delivery times, posts continued to invest in parcel pick-up and drop-off solutions, sorting capacity and automation.
Cost pressure in the parcel delivery market remains high, in part due to rising fuel prices, cost of labour and labor shortages.
Postal growth is also driven by diversification strategies.
The complete 2022 results as well as results for the first half of 2023 will be presented in the IPC Global Postal Industry Report, which will be published in November 2023. The report will include a comprehensive and detailed review of the postal industry, covering over 50 postal operators worldwide and analysing key market trends. A publicly available summary, the IPC GPIR Key Findings, will also be published in November.