Innovation in the postal sector

The postal sector seeks to become highly innovative to compete against competitors like DHL, Fedex and UPS which have their own distribution networks.

In 2012 we were consulted by the French Post for a highly innovative project; we are now working for BPost and the Belgian Post which, we must admit, shows also excellence in its innovation processes.

One of their innovative project is BPack 24/7. This project was inspired by the French post which launched Cityssimo, a service that revolves around automatic machines to send and retrieves parcels. These machines (there are ca. 40 of them available in the test) are obviously available on a 24/7 basis and were set up in areas with high affluence (metro stations, supermarkets, …). The aim of this project is obviously to overcome the hurdles of the current distribution network were individuals have to go to the post office to retrieve or send parcels. The opening hours don’t match the work habits of most people who are then forced to visit crowded post offices on Saturdays.

Advices for your market research and your business plan (be it in Brussels, Belgium or elsewhere)

It is important to think out of the box (sorry for the cliché) and to start from consumers’ behaviors to reinvent the business. This is what Bpost is trying to do here. Time will tell whether the experiment is successful but at least no one can tell that Bpost is not trying harder than anyone to break the rules.