Achieving High Performance in the Post and Parcel Industry

LATEST THINKING

Now in its ninth year, the Accenture in-depth analysis of the post and parcel industry explores the market’s latest trends and opportunities.

Strategies are being upended. Extensive experimentation and significant venture capital is reinventing last mile delivery. “Wait and see” is no longer an option. Our high performers are employing winning strategies that secure the core mail business, exploit the parcels opportunity and diversify to differentiate.

Digital is a game changer. Digital investments must go beyond addressing cost and productivity to generate revenue. New this year, the 2015 findings use the Accenture post and parcel digital performance index to evaluate digital readiness against a proven set of criteria. Access the full report for unparalleled insights into managing trends and read about the strategic priorities going forward.

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

The following factors are influencing the post and parcel industry:

Mail volume decline is reaching a plateau

All countries are experiencing a decline in transactional mail, although direct marketing mail is stable and growing in some regions. Postal organizations have maintained or even grown mail revenues, primarily through price increases.
The parcel business is recalibrating

Parcels growth is driven by eCommerce creating substantial change within the parcel delivery market. Overall, parcel yields are declining as parcels become smaller, lighter and travel shorter distances—creating a move from air to ground transportation that appears set to continue.
Diversification strategies are no longer optional

As post and parcel organizations evaluate their strategies, they are successfully finding growth and profitability in areas both near and far from their historical business. Investments (in retail, logistics, banking and delivery) continue to grow as a proportion of total revenues.

RECOMMENDATIONS

High performers’ strategies:

Defending the core business

High performers defend their core business by delivering strong mail profitability and investing in product innovation to add value and slow mail volume declines.
Investing in the parcels opportunity

High performers grow parcel revenues through capturing market share and smart pricing. They focus on improving the profitability of B2C deliveries, while stimulating the growth of higher margin B2B deliveries.
Diversifying selectively

High performers grow their logistics capabilities. 8/10 top post and parcel organizations choose logistics as a core diversification strategy. And adopt a commercial mind-set and business-oriented culture.

Being digital

Successful digital investments once focused on cost management and improved productivity. Now, this needs to turn toward digital investments that generate revenue.

WHERE NEXT?

Post and parcel organizations need to address today’s strategic priorities and tomorrow’s technologies:

Strategic priorities

Three critical areas to achieve high performance:

Seek out monetization of the digital opportunity
Develop the same nimble scalability as new market entrants to win the battle for the last mile
Recognize the opportunity and challenge of eCommerce-driven, cross-border transactions

On the horizon

Two technologies to watch:

The Internet of Things (IoT): Post and parcel organizations could use the IoT to offer new customer-facing functionality and unprecedented improvements in the customer experience.

Drones: Irrespective of autonomous drone delivery becoming a reality, drone applications could become more mainstream—whether monitoring delivery efforts, proactively addressing traffic issues or automating the identification of new delivery points.

Authors

LATEST THINKING

Achieving high performance in the post and parcel industry

OVERVIEW

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

RECOMMENDATIONS

WHERE NEXT?

New starts now

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