IPC: Postal efforts to diversify and innovate have allowed them to sustain growth despite global uncertainty
Despite global uncertainty and reduced e-commerce growth, the postal industry shows resilience, as revealed in the IPC Global Postal Industry Report 2022 Key Findings, published today.
Holger Winklbauer, CEO of IPC, states: “Postal efforts to diversify and innovate have allowed them to sustain growth despite global uncertainty and the cost-of-living crisis. The transformation of the posts from mail into more diversified companies is further accelerated”.
E-commerce is no longer the primary growth driver for the postal industry
On aggregate, total postal industry revenue reached €492.8bn in 2022, up €17.2bn (+3.6%) on 2021 results. In 2022, logistics & freight contributed more than €9bn growth to 2022 industry revenue and parcels & express is nolonger the primary driver for industry expansion. With an average growth of 0.1% (when all posts are weighted equally) posts show resilience despite global uncertainty, high energy prices and the cost-of-living crisis.
Parcel volume growth decline from pandemic highs
The slowdown in e-commerce growth resulted in declining parcel volumes in 2022. With the end of the Covid-related restrictions and the increase of cost of living, last-mile delivery market growth flattened in 2022. The significant growth trend in e-commerce was curbed, directly impacting posts’ business.
Mail volume decline slows down
While rates of decline slowed in the past two years, partly due to the bounce-back effect from the pandemic, digitalisation and e-substitution continued to impact demand and mail volumes fell a further 6.2% in 2022 on average. Driven by the double-blow of a high-inflationary post-pandemic economic environment, and global energy and material shortages precipitated by war, mail division revenue declined by 3.9%. The revenue decline is less acute than in 2020 when the postal industry was hit by the pandemic.
Mail is no longer the key source of postal revenue
The share of mail in postal industry overall revenue has decreased over the past five year to now reach less than 28% of postal revenue. Parcels and express now account for more than a quarter of the overall postal revenue. Posts are driving growth by investing in sectors that build on core capabilities and expertise, such as e-commerce logistics, retail financial services and digital communications. Furthermore, more than 20% of postal revenue is derived from international operations.
This report includes data for the following 53 postal operators: An Post; Australia Post; bpost; Canada Post; China Post; Chunghwa Post; Correios Brasil; Correo Argentino*; Correos; Correos de Chile; Correos de Mexico; Croatian Post; CTT Portugal Post; Cyprus Post; Czech Post; Deutsche Post DHL; Eesti Post; Hellenic Post-ELTA; Hongkong Post*; Iceland Post; India Post*; Israel Post; Japan Post; Korea Post; Latvian Post; Le Groupe La Poste; Lithuania Post; Magyar Posta; NZ Post; Österreichische Post; PHLPost; POST Luxembourg; Poczta Polska; Pos Indonesia; Pos Malaysia; Posta Romana; Posta Slovenije; Poste Italiane; Posten Norge; Posti Group; PostNL; PostNord; PTT-Turkish Post*; Royal Mail; Russian Post*; Singapore Post; Slovenska Posta; South African Post Office*; Swiss Post; Thailand Post; Ukrposhta; United States Postal Service; Vietnam Post*.