To What Extent Has E-Substitution Impacted the Demand for Letters and Which Factors Are Constraining Its Advance

Abstract

Letter volumes in countries with advanced broadband networks have been in decline since the early to mid-2000s while, more recently, parcel volumes have started to grow quite rapidly. The main drivers of these trends, namely the substitution of physical letters with electronic modes of communication and increasing levels of on-line shopping, are expected to continue for some time. This raises two important challenges for postal universal service providers (USPs). The first is to manage operational changes to meet the evolving needs of consumers, such as changes in the quantity, shape, size and weight of mail sent and received. Second, USPs need to reduce costs and increase efficiency as quickly as is practically possible in order to help slow the decline in letters and to compete more effectively with other parcel providers.

Reference

Catherine Cazals, Thierry Magnac, and Soterios Soteri, “To What Extent Has E-Substitution Impacted the Demand for Letters and Which Factors Are Constraining Its Advance”, in New Business and Regulatory Strategies in the Postal Sector, Victor Glass, Timothy J. Brennan, and Pier Luigi Parcu (eds.), 2019.