World Postal Service: Digital Transformation Creating Digital Divide in E-Commerce
…performance of postal operators in 172 countries on “reliability, reach, relevance and resilience,” according to David Dadge, communication and events manager at the UPU.
The report found that gaps in postal development have increased over the past year, creating a growing hurdle for cross-border e-commerce. That situation must be addressed promptly as the UPU says cross-border e-commerce is one of the fastest growth areas for postal operators.
The report also scored regional postal operators in the report: “Industrial countries received an average grade of 68.9 out of 100 in the index, up one point from 2018, while average scores for Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (49.8), Asia-Pacific (29.5), Arab region (27.29), Latin America (22.7) and Africa (20.6) provided evidence of the growing gap.”
In regards to the scoring of individual countries, Switzerland took first place, the Netherlands held onto second and Germany came in third.
Even with improvements cited in several other countries such as Poland, China, Tunisia, Colombia and Nigeria, the widening postal development gaps are posing significant threat to the global network. However, there is opportunity there as well.
The report found “evidence that, while reducing gaps within regions is important, the strongest effects are in terms of reductions at the global level. Thus, the road map for postal development needs to be a global one, highlighting the important role of developing multilateral solutions.”
The UPU is encouraging countries to invest more in their own postal services and to help with development on the global level. Where such investment increases ultimately appear, and by how much, remains to be seen.
But in any case, the world’s postal network is central to the daily lives of citizens around the globe and to vital functions in each country such as voting. It is also at the heart of cross-border e-commerce and, indeed, in cost containment for shipping costs in every industry.
The digital transformation also brings about the same issues for postal operators as it does in other industries. Keep an eye out for budget increases as this may represent new opportunities for vendors, channel partners and security professionals in the near future.
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