With the growth in digitization, there has been a paradigm shift in shopping from the brick and mortar stores to the e-commerce portals. Smartphones have taken the centre stage with more and more users opting for mobile shopping. This has brought about a major change in the postal department as well. The volume of letters has significantly declined while e-commerce has perked up the volume of global parcels. The competition has become fierce than before as new entrants are vying for a larger share of the liberalized market.

Due to the overwhelming increase in the online shoppers the express segment and the parcels have become the chief growth area of the postal sector. Increase in the demand from the online buyers for cheaper, faster and convenient returns and deliveries have become the key challenges of the industry along with the ever-increasing competition in the delivery market as well. In this competitive, fast-paced and complex world the operators of the postal department are gearing up to improve the parcel delivery business and optimize the mail operations. They are adopting effective strategies in order to diversify into the new markets.

With the increase in the parcel volume, the top e-retailers are exercising more power over the market while the international integrators are demonstrating their influence on the B2C delivery. In such a scenario the postal industry is diversifying into new segments either by acquisition, investing in different areas of business, partnerships or joint ventures in both the overseas and the domestic markets.

Driven by the huge customer demand and brutal competition the parcel and the postal operators are making use of futuristic technology to provide new services and products and boost the operational efficiency. Moreover, the demand of customers for faster and convenient delivery of parcels is fuelling the need for avant-garde technology.

Cutting-edge technologies are helping the operators of the postal department to fulfil the growing requirements of the customers. Some of the leading-edge technologies that are required and are being used in the postal departments are PDAs (personal digital assistants), sensors and RFID chips (Radio-frequency identification chips). Internet of Things, cloud computing, drones, robotics and big data are the other noteworthy technological innovations that would play a vital role in the ‘postal industry’ in the near future.

Centralization and automated sorting of the parcel and the letter operations are the important developments that are being used in the postal sector. Automated scanning and the sequencing of the letter deliveries deserve special mention. To improve delivery in the parcel business, last mile delivery is an essential feature. This has been improved further with leading-edge technologies like PDAs for the purpose of signature scanning. This has been able to add increased security to the parcels of the consumers.

With the advancement of technology, the chain of parcel delivery has become more receiver-centralized. The receivers are the customers who are now not only informed better about the delivery status of their parcels through tracking but even have the choice to alter the process of delivery. They can either postpone their delivery or redirect it to another delivery point if they are not available to receive their parcel.

How Smart Locker Technology Can Help the Postal Operators?

Smartbox is a global provider of the cutting-edge ‘Smart Locker Technology’. The parcel locker feature of the brand can be a great boon for the postal industry.
o Improved Performance: The parcel locker feature can help in controlling the cost and improve the efficiency of operations. The feature would bring about efficiency in the entire system from the dispatching to the delivery of the parcels. It would solve the problems of lost, misplaced and last- mile deliveries.
o Scalability: The ‘Smarbox software’ is designed on a ‘scalable architecture’ that can be the right fit for the postal industry. This helps the business solutions to adapt to the changing requirements in the postal industry.
o Enhanced Reputation: Parcels lockers being available around the clock would permit customers to collect the parcels anytime according to their convenience. This would appreciably solve the problems of lost, misplaced and failed deliveries. The improvement in the delivery system would positively boost the image of the postal industry.

In this technology dominated age, parcel lockers offer the right kind of delivery mix. The feature of parcel locker boosts the efficiency in operations and solves the problem of unsuccessful deliveries of parcels. Thus it is being used in the postal organizations and the logistics companies. The electronic parcel lockers are widely used for the first-mile access, last mile delivery, and various other services. Incorporating this feature in a business can help an entrepreneur to set up a powerful network of delivery terminals for the effective exchange of goods between the recipients and the senders. With the parcel lockers, businessmen can incorporate the automated ‘click and collect’ feature to provide the BOPIS experience to the customers.

If you are curious to learn more, dial +91-8882-760-760 to speak with one of our representatives or send an email to info@smartbox.in. We would be glad to assist you.