Online bargains

Flood of parcels from China drives up postal revenue

For the first time, the postal workers delivered 200 million parcels.

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

The Chinese low-cost online retailers Shein, Temu, Wish & Co. are causing a flood of parcels. They already account for a double-digit share of the domestic postal service's parcel business, which has therefore already surpassed letter sales. Postal workers also benefit from this: each receives a bonus of 813 euros.

"Compared to the millions of parcels, there are only isolated cases of problems with returns, etc. The business is of course very competitive for us in terms of price, and the bundling of a few large customers has certain risks," explains Georg Pölzl, CEO of Austrian Post. However, the largest shipping customer is Amazon, which also sends a lot via Austrian Post despite having its own delivery team; the US giant accounts for 13 percent of parcel volumes.

This rose significantly in Austria last year to 200 million items, an increase of eleven percent and already four times as many as in 2011. Together with parcels that are only sent between companies, the market in Austria already accounts for 368 million items.

Post CEO Georg Pölzl: "Customers want to be able to collect parcels around the clock."

(Bild: zVg)

As a result, 51 percent of Austrian Post's most recent revenue of EUR 2.7 billion in the previous year came from parcels for the first time, while letters and direct mail shrank to just 34 percent. A further six percent came from the retail outlets and the subsidiary bank99. As Swiss Post's profit also climbed by eight percent to just under 139 million euros, Austrian Post employees are also getting something: their annual bonus rose from 800 euros to 813 euros per person, while managers have a different bonus program.

More pick-up stations and self-service branches for the first time
Something is also changing for customers: the self-service stations are being greatly expanded for the convenient collection of deliveries, with the number of boxes set to increase from 113,000 to 200,000 this year. One of the reasons for this is that 1,000 former Telekom telephone booths are being converted into pick-up stations.

Another new idea is to set up small self-service branches in areas with poorer coverage. Around a dozen are planned, the first of which already exist in Linz and Gänserdorf (Lower Austria). "This is intended as a supplement to the postal partners. Unfortunately, some of them are no longer available due to bankruptcies in the retail sector, and we can also extend opening hours," explains Post CEO Pölzl.