Market Trends
Taking the US as point of reference as the biggest mail market, three major trends are clear:
- Companies with high mail volumes - over 2,000 letters per day - are moving from franking machines to alternative ways of processing mail, such as digitalized solutions.
- Companies are turning increasingly to small to medium-sized franking machines to cover their remaining smaller volumes of mail which cannot be digitally processed.
- Mail processing efficiency is being improved through added value services and software solutions. This trend is resulting in higher demand for specialized services and software covering all facets of mail processing.
Growth in Specialized Services and Software Solutions
In Germany, around 19.6 billion letters were sent in 2008, with companies dispatching an average of between 50 to 1,000 letters per month. Liberalization of the mail market in Germany has been accompanied by increasing demand for software solutions and specialized services covering all aspects of mail processing. This said, around 45% of German companies have still to make use of alternative mail services. However, over half of these companies is now thinking of using such services in addition to their traditional mail processes. This will result in an increase in the volume of mail processed and delivered using alternative mail processing methods.
Mail Consolidation Still a Niche Market
In 2005, the German authorities freed the market for commercial mail consolidation. Now commercial customers can save themselves the trip to the post office or post box and have their mail collected directly. This mail is now consolidated, sorted by post code, and then passed on for delivery. These new services enable companies with small to medium mail volumes to profit from rebates granted on pre-sorted (consolidated) mail.
