The new campaign signals An Post’s clear intention to target this business and to aggressively grow its current 25% market share by making it easy for companies and consumers to sell, to buy, to receive and return goods, wherever and whenever they choose. 

The Irish B2C online market is currently valued at €2.9 billion and is expected to reach €5 billion by 2021*.   In 2016, the average online shopping spend in Ireland was €553 per head while in the UK it was €1,011, demonstrating the huge growth potential and commercial opportunity in the Irish market.

“Growing our parcels business by anticipating and delivering precisely those services needed by e-tailers to grow their national and international business is at the heart of our new business strategy, explains An Post General Manager of Parcels, Garrett Bridgeman.  “We are already winning back market share lost in recent years to private operators who have neither the national reach of An Post, nor the costs associated with providing high quality, secure services to every household in the State.  Now we’re using the strength of our national network infrastructure, our fleet, our industry know-how and unrivalled local knowledge to fight back and to grow our current 25% share of the €600m Irish parcel delivery business.

“While traditional letter mail continues to decline steadily all over the world - Irish volumes are down almost 50% in the last decade – parcel volumes are on the rise due to the explosion in online commerce.  We recognised this great opportunity, but the way we were operating was losing us business to more flexible, cheaper competitors who could offer more to national and international e-tailers.

“Setting its sights firmly on this market,  An Post has made a huge step-change to upgrade and improve its services, introducing evening and Saturday deliveries, later acceptance of items from sending customers, multiple delivery attempts and ‘in-flight’ options for the receiving customers, designed to suit their lifestyles and preferences.  An Post has secured the ground-breaking new working arrangements with staff to ensure the cost-effective, flexible working necessary to retain and win business”, Garrett Bridgeman concluded. 

In additional, the Company has upgraded the quality and speed of real-time delivery data back to customers and is adding the US to its successful AddressPal service which will allow customers to shop on US websites which don’t deliver to Ireland.   The UK service has already attracted over 120,000 registered users, shopping for millions of items.  ReturnPal, a new simple pick-up service taking the hassle out of returning unwanted online shopping will launch within weeks. As well as improving services, An Post is planning to promote the business strongly and bring their share of voice in line with market share.

Breaking down borders and removing obstacles to bring the world closer is the theme of World Wide Open, a confident new brand positioning for An Post reinforcing the Company’s leadership role in the Irish parcels and its intent to put this growing revenue stream at the very centre of its business.

Agency Target McConnell has used high-impact visuals and special effects to create the campaign which comprises a new 40-second TV ad, Outdoor, Digital and Direct Mail which will run to year-end in its initial phase.  A series of new 10-second tactical ads using real-life ‘un-boxing’ footage to promote the new AddressPal and ReturnPal services will air shortly.

An Post will be announcing a number of important new business contracts in coming weeks.

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Source: An Post