PostNL: “45% of our revenue comes from ecommerce by 2020”

PostNL saw 36 percent of its revenue come from ecommerce during the first half of this year. That’s an increase of 12.5 percent compared to the same period last year, when ecommerce accounted for 32 percent of the Dutch postal company’s revenue. It predicts ecommerce will take over 45 percent of its total revenue by 2020.

PostNL announced this while posting the results of the second quarter and first half year of 2017. The company’s addressed mail volume declined by 8.8 percent, while parcels volumes increased by 17 percent. According to the postal company, this evidences its accelerating transformation. Fewer people send addressed mail, while ecommerce is getting more and more popular, which leads to an increased delivery of parcels. So, PostNL is investing heavily in its parcels division.

Performance in Parcels was strong

Also, due to measures by the Authority Consumer and Market, other postal operators in the Netherlands are collecting more mail items, but PostNL continued to be able to implement its planned cost savings measures. In the second quarter of this year, it realized 16 million euros cost savings. And according to CEO Herna Verhagen, PostNL’s performance in the parcels division was strong. “With volumes continuing to grow in line with the ecommerce trend.”

PostNL keeps investing in ecommerce

Furthermore, PostNL expects that its subsidiary Spring will grow its revenue by capturing growth from ecommerce, in part supported by the company’s contract with AliExpress. As said, about 36 percent of PostNL’s revenue came from ecommerce during the first half of this year, compared to 32 percent for the same period last year. PostNL says it will continue to make progress and invest in this area and it estimates ecommerce will account for around 45 percent of its revenue by 2020.