Theme of conference is Adding Value to Business
For merchants in the US, Australia is now the number 2 shipping destination for goods, Canadaisthe 1st.
Shipping intnationally is becoming easier and this is shown in the rise in traffic. In the US people are prepared to pay for faster shipping.
Customer expectations are changing very rapidly - what used to be extraordinary is now the ordinary.
Making it easy for customers to post by using online postage services is holding back some of the decline in mail volumes.
Returns logistics is an increasing business as people buy more things online. Reverse logistics is "the process of planning, implementation and execution from the point of consumption to the point of origin to recapture value."
It is interesting that manufacturers will have to offer reverse logistics cross border in the future - especially on electrical goods. Consumers have the right to return goods within 28 days and expect the manufacturer/supplier to take them back?
79% of consumers will not shop with companies where they have had a bad returns experience - Royal Mail trend data.
120,000 post offices in Europe are being used to send back returns.
Total B2C ecommerce sales in 2010 are 591 Bn Euros and growing at 20% per year.
Reverse logistics will continue to grow due o legislation, e-commerce and environmental concerns. This is a new opportunity for the postal industry.
Interactive print - marrying paper and 'e' is starting to catch on. In 2011 14m people scanned QR codes and were typically 18-34 males earning over €100k.
Marketers in the US use around 3 marketing channels to hold conversations with their customers. Pesonalisation isn't enough it's all about engagement and interaction.
It's interesting that 91% of people who have opted out of marketing meals, 63% of people say that they would consider defecting from a brand that sends them generic irrelevant messages - 22% claim they have already defected.
Direct Mail started to grow again in 2010 after a 3 year trend of declining volume.
