With the launch in April 2012 of www.paket.de  DHL parcels recipients can decide online when and how their goods will be delivered : at one of the 2,500 Packstations, at a neighbor’s home, or at home. It is even possible to tell DHL where on customers’ premises the package should be left, i.e., in a garage or garden shed.

Customers can also select their “Wunschtag” (preferred delivery date) for home delivery. The service includes a text or e-mail notification of the expected day of delivery. A loyalty program encourages customers to use Packstations more frequently to frank, send and collect their parcels.

This strategy to tailor delivery options to recipients’ wishes is vindicated by a study also published in April by Deutsche Post DHL, called ‘Einkaufen 4.0′ (Shopping 4.0) http://www.dp-dhl.com/de/logistik_populaer/mehr_lebensqualitaet-durch-e-commerce.html . Asked about their delivery preferences,

-70% of (German) respondents said they wanted to know in advance the delivery date

-66% would welcome evening deliveries

-56%  want to be able to select the delivery day

-54% would like to have their parcels left with neighbors

-51% want to receive notification of delivery by SMS or email

-33% would prefer to collect their parcels at a post office or “Packstation”.

Until recently, New Zealand Post’s main involvement in government services related to electoral enrolment services, through a MoU with the Department of Justice. For many years, New Zealanders have been able to get from NZ Post Shops electoral enrolment forms, which they can leave at the counter or mail back .

The Post is now going one small step further. Citizens will soon be able to have their identity officially verified at post counters, by showing IDs and having their pictures taken. (http://www.nzpost.co.nz/about-us/media-centre/media-release/new-way-for-people-to-access-organisations-online) . Once their identify has been verified, users will be able to access a series of online government services offered  through the Department of Internal Affairs’ new one-stop-shop portal, RealMe (http://www.realme.govt.nz).

The range of organizations using the RealMe government platform  is being extended – it will include government agencies and local authorities, as well as private sector businesses (subject to the passing of the Electronic Identity Verification Bill – available at http://legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2011/0323/11.0/DLM1777802.html ).

This is just the latest in a series of ID verification services recently launched by posts. In the UK for instance, the Post Office was awarded at the end of 2011 a contract for delivering biometric residence permits on behalf of the UK Border Agency (http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/contact/enrol-biometric/). The Royal Mail Group is also keen to become one of the providers of identity assurance services (IDA).

In the past few years Posts have started to open up their network of post offices to third parties – among which traditional banks, international money transfer operators, new mobile payments operators, or mobile service providers.

The jury is still out as to whether these strategies have really paid off . Many Posts, in particular in emerging and developing countries, have yet to develop a culture of business partnerships. In this respect Ordinance 210 of the Brazilian Ministry of Communications, published on April 13, 2012 may well become a “best practice”  other countries  will build on http://www.mc.gov.br/images/servicos-postais/legislacao/portarias/portaria-n-210-21022012.pdf (in Portuguese).

The Ordinance not only encourages Correios to let third parties use its huge network of 7,000 branches. It also sets out the basic principles the Post will have to follow when negotiating partnerships:

-          Correios will need to make sure the new services from the third party are “compatible” with its own offerings, and can be “absorbed” by postal counters (e.g., in terms of additional workload, customer service, IT capacity),

-          The Post should receive an adequate compensation for the provision of these services, not only covering operating costs but also “ensuring a financial return so as to contribute to the expansion and improvement of the basic postal services provided by Correios”,

-          Agreements with third parties will cover in particular all service specifications, duration of the agreement, the financial model retained, and quality targets.

The Ordinance opens the door wide open for Correios to enter the mobile phone market, and to get closer to the objective set by its CEO W. Pinheiro :  “to grow from 0.4% to 1% the Brazilian Post’s share of the country’s GDP”.

The agreement between the Nigerian Post (NIPOST) and One Network, announced in March 2012,  may well become –  if it materializes according to plans – a partnership made in heaven, a textbook case study, and a model for many other postal operators.

- One Network is a Nigerian industry stakeholder organization including payment processors, financial institutions, insurance companies and system integrators, among others. Its major aim is to provide neighborhood agent management services to authorized public service providers such as mobile money operators, banks and microfinance institutions across Nigeria.

-The Central Bank of Nigeria issued in 2011 mobile payments licenses to 18 companies, all of which struggling to find reliable local agents responsible for the cashing in/cashing out of remittances. Their combined network of 1,000 agents is way too small to allow for the emergence of a healthy mobile payment sector comparable to Kenya’s.

-NIPOST  has a nationwide network of 1,065 post offices and more than 3,000 sub post offices. The new National ICT Policy issued in January 2012 mandates the Post to leverage its network to serve “as a tool for the promotion of social, financial and digital inclusion”.

One Network plans are extremely ambitious:  to build a structured, standardized and open nationwide network of 50,000 neighborhood agents that will provide access to government and financial services.  With the new partnership NIPOST’s offices will become the backbone of One Network’s extensive network, which will also include other locations such as micro finance banks, regular banks or gas stations. One Network wants to provide “an integrated platform for all stakeholders so that interactions remain seamless across multiple operators”.

In additional to mobile payments One Network agents will serve as a one stop access points to a variety of  services such as :

-          Government services, such as biometric registration and verification, public identify registration, “educational services registration”

-          Utility bill payment services

-          Mobile money transfer services

-          Card issuance

-          Document scanning and printing

-          Information verification services.

One Network  first needs to address two challenges : to quickly reach a critical mass of agents, and to seamlessly integrate its partners’  IT networks. If successful, the project will help ensure NIPOST’s long term financial viability, as more agents join, and new services are launched.

-On NIPOST and mobile payments in Nigeria : http://www.punchng.com/business/technology/mobile-money-nipost-others-lead-penetration-campaign/

-Nigeria’s draft ICT sector policy (January 2012) : http://nigeriacomputers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/National_ICT_Policy_DRAFT_090112.pdf

-One Network web site : https://sites.google.com/site/cosmosonenetwork/about-us

The new UN E-Government Survey 2012 released on March 20 ranks countries according to the “willingness and capacity of national administrations to use information and communication technologies to deliver public services”. South Korea maintains its first rank position in e-government, followed by the Netherlands, the UK, Denmark, the U.S. and France.

The report discusses in detail ongoing trends by region, presents case studies, and makes recommendations to governments. Chapter IV insists on the importance of multi-channel delivery of public services, and the need to combine newer channels (such as mobile) and more established ones, like post offices. One of the case studies presented, Italy’s Reti Amiche project, brings government services (such as the issuance of residence permits) closer to citizens by making them available through a range of networks :  5,740 post offices, tobacconists, large retailers, etc…

The report notes elsewhere that the lack of e-infrastructure  continues to hinder the development of e-gov services in many developing countries. It advocates “an evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach to developing new channels”. The implicit message to Posts is: in countries where large ICT-based e-gov plans are stalled or still on the drawing board, Posts should jump in and better position themselves as a key front office of national and local governments – perhaps through low-cost services involving automated workflow management.

The UN report “E-government for the people” is available at http://www.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/08report.htm.  Information on Poste Italiane’s involvement in Reti Amiche (in Italian) : http://www.poste.it/azienda/ufficipostali/reti_amiche.shtml

“In 2011 European priority letter mail service performance exceeded the European Union (EU) objectives for the 14th successive year. The IPC UNEX measurement system showed that 93.0% of letters were delivered within three days of posting and 98.1% within five days. This exceeds the objectives set in the EU Postal Directives of 85% in three days (J+3), and 97% in five days (J+5)”.(International Post Corporation press release, March 23, 2012) http://www.ipc.be/en/Services/Technical%20_Platforms/UNEX/~/media/Documents/PUBLIC/UNEX/Full%20Year%20Results/2010/UNEX_Full%20Year_2011.ashx

The overall speed target (85% in 3 days) was met for the first time in 1998, and the reliability target (97% of letters delivered within 5 days) in 1999. In fact the overall EU targets for intra-EU cross border mail (set in the 1997 Postal Directive) have been met every year since – even after the EU was enlarged to include Eastern European countries. UNEX measures, which in 1994 covered only 18 countries, included last year 35 countries and 964 country-to-country mail streams.

The 1997  quality targets (confirmed in 2002 and 2008) have definitely helped speed up much-needed improvements in intra-EU letter mail operations. There was a time when UNEX data was closely followed by postal CEOs and industry stakeholders. Under-performing country-to-country streams were systematically analyzed, operations managers asked to streamline transportation or sorting processes, and progress was discussed at each meeting of the IPC Board (made up of the CEOs of the Posts members of IPC).

Are the 1997 targets the remnants of the past ? Not quite yet. As noted by Postandparcel.info, last year just 55% of all country-to-country mail streams monitored were meeting or exceeding the three-day delivery target – most of them originating in or destined for the newer member countries of the EU.

Poste Italiane announced on March 15 a new partnership with Amazon.it , whereby customers will be given the option to pay Amazon goods on delivery . Postal carriers will be equipped with card readers. The test will be conducted in 6,500 cities, then, based on trial outcome extended to 15,000 post offices nationwide next year. No payment fee will be charged during the trial.

This news is intriguing : payment on delivery, which used to be widespread in 20^th century Europe, has all but disappeared, except in countries such as Ukraine where it still is the main payment method . In fact 80% of Italian e-shoppers  pay by credit card or Paypal on checkout.

On the other hand, Italy is lagging behind most of its neighbors when it comes to e-commerce penetration. Only one third of Italian Internet users shop online – vs. 43% in Spain, 51% in Poland, and 85-90% in the UK, France or Germany (source Eurostat). Many Italians put a higher value on trips to local retailers than on the convenience of online shopping : according to a ContactLab study 78% of customers who don’t shop online say they want to “see” the merchandise before they buy.

The Italian Post’s goal to develop new customer-centric delivery services is aligned with Amazon.it’s objective to grow the underdeveloped  Italy’s  online bookstore/consumer electronics segment. Created only 15 months ago,  Amazon.it is at the moment Italy’s 27^th most visited web site according to Alexa.com …just below the Poste Italiane web site , which ranks 24^th.

Further readings on the Italian e-commerce market :

- Casaleggio.it (annual study) : http://www.casaleggio.it/pubblicazioni/focus/ecommerce/ecommerce-in-italia-2011.php, (2011 report, 2012 is  due out in April)

- Milan Polytechnic  E-commerce Observatory’s annual study 2011  http://www.osservatori.net/rapporti - slides available on slideshare.net

-ContactLab 2011 report  “E-Commerce Consumer Behaviour”  http://www.contactlab.com/paper_netcomm/mail/76/695/ecommerce-consumer-behaviour-report.html