14-12-2023
Brussels, 14 December 2023 – 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 no longer 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
Average volume growth, % Average revenue growth, %
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.
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The above insights are published today in IPC’s publicly available key findings report, which provides a distillation of data and analysis included in the full IPC Global Postal Industry Report 2023. Published annually and now in its thirteenth edition, the full report covers 53 postal operators from Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America as well as integrators FedEx and UPS. While aiming to deepen understanding about key trends shaping the postal industry, the report also benchmarks the performance of individual posts both against their peers and an industry average. The full IPC Global Postal Industry Report is available for purchase by stakeholders outside the IPC membership.
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*.
About International Post Corporation
International Post Corporation (IPC) is the leading service provider of the global postal industry that provides leadership by driving service quality, interoperability, and business-critical intelligence to support posts in defending existing business and expanding into new growth areas. It is a cooperative association of 26 member postal operators in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. IPC’s solutions and services are used by over 190 posts worldwide. Since 1989 IPC has set standards for upgrading quality and service performance and developed technological solutions that help members enhance service for international letters, packets and parcels. IPC engages in industry research, creates business-critical intelligence, provides a range of platforms and programmes for member post CEOs and senior management to exchange best practices and discuss strategy. IPC also manages the system for incentive-based payments between postal operators.
For further information, please contact:
Eva Wouters
PR and Web Manager
International Post Corporation
T: +32 2 724 71 91 E: [email protected]