Do you regret that you waged a war against the Polish Post’s monopoly? From what we can see, this is quite a brutal fight, which makes it very interesting for the media. Do you have any worries about the image of InPost?
I don’t regret this at all. The Polish Post has been neglecting its customers for years and it was convinced that nothing would threaten its strong position – until InPost came along. At first we achieved a free market for parcels up to 50 g and now, together with PGP and Ruch, we are realising a two-year contract for delivering services to general courts and prosecutor’s offices. This contract is worth nearly 500 million zloty. The war with the monopoly is in full swing.
I assume that wedging a war with the monopolist you believe in winning this war. When do you think it will happen? Or maybe you have won already?
There is still a lot to be done on the Polish market of postal and courier services. We still have to fight for amending the Postal Law, which in its current form consolidates the monopolistic position of the Polish Post instead of demonopolising the market. InPost is definitely not laying down its arms but it’s high time for the Polish Post to understand that we operate on the same market, which is difficult and suddenly shrinking. Only by working together in harmony the Polish Post and private postal operators can function efficiently and modernise the Polish postal market.
The postal sector requires huge financial investments in modernisation, innovations, automation and information technology. Only by applying innovative solutions, such as electronic acknowledgement of receipt or equipping couriers with the online GPS system, we can say that a real success has been achieved on the postal services market. In this way we can also create proper standards in the parcel delivery process.
How do you see the future of the postal services in Poland? Can you see deliveries within several minutes guaranteed by drones?
The postal services market needs innovative and original solutions. The key to success lies in introducing such services, which, apart from being revolutionary, are fit for daily use. It is worth mentioning drones here. According to what Amazon announced, they were to change the way parcels are delivered around the world. As could be expected, the idea to use them disappeared together with the last day of Christmas e-shopping.
Can we do it? We have been checking the possibilities of drones for 18 months now. Unfortunately, using them to deliver parcels is a very uneconomic venture today. The cost of introducing the system as well as buying necessary equipment and maintenance is huge. In order to use drones we would have to get many permits and certificates, especially those connected with the air traffic. There are also controversies connected with personal data protection and making sure parcels are secure.
Therefore, delivery methods cannot be innovative only “as a matter of principle”. We have to be able to use devices that are functional in the first place and that allow for easy and quick deliveries at a competitive price.
If not drones maybe parcel pick-up stations will become a global standard?
When we introduced InPost parcel pick-up stations in Poland, our aim was to demonstrate that thanks to self-service terminals to send and receive parcels we can not only improve postal and courier services significantly but also increase customers’ comfort.
Thanks to InPost parcel pick-up stations, which are based on the latest solutions, we managed to eliminate the problem of so-called “the last mile”, which gives the biggest courier companies sleepless nights.
Our efficiency is proved by the latest statistics, which show that a traditional courier can deliver 60 parcels a day while at the same time a driver delivers 600-700 parcels to the InPost parcel pick-up stations. Our machines already create the biggest network of automatic 24-hour terminals in the world. There are 3,500 terminals available in 19 countries and by the end of 2016 we are going to open 16,000 new InPost parcel pick-up stations.
Currently we are speeding up our expansion in order to offer fast, comfortable and cross-border deliveries, which are unattainable for other operators, as fast as possible. I have no doubts that it is InPost parcel pick-up stations that will dictate trends on the e-commerce deliveries market in the next few years. We always want to be one step ahead not only of the national but mainly the global competition and be the first ones to provide customers with services on the highest international level.
Recently you have become interested in the marketing sector. Your five-million investment in Salesmanago has made some stir on the market. Is marketing automation a trend that is most important for this sector?
There’s no doubt that in the face of such a dynamic growth of e-commerce improving sales processes is a must in order not to lose with the online competition, which is becoming stronger every day. At the moment marketing automation is one of the most efficient tools to define the target audience. The significance of this solution will grow in connection with excellent perspectives of the international e-commerce and so this investment has a strong rational foundation – the risk is low and the chance to grow and achieve a market success is very high, especially in the case of such a consolidated brand as Salesmanago.
When you invested in Salesmanago you said you had no doubts that “e-commerce is the most perspective branch in the world”. Why do you think so?
I didn’t speak idly, that’s for sure. My opinion is backed up with an obvious proof connected with the power of this sphere of the market, meaning an impressive sales level.
Year after year there are new records beaten and the e-commerce two-digit growth dynamics can be seen in every part of the world. In 2016 the international e-commerce value will oscillate on the level of 1.67 trillion American dollars. And this is only the beginning because in some countries, including Poland, e-commerce is only starting to grow. In our country it constitutes only 3.8 percent of the whole retail sales market. We shouldn’t forget about the dynamic development of its “younger brother”, meaning m-commerce. We use tablets and smartphones to shop more and more often and with the development of shopping applications the popularity of this channel may be even higher than standard laptops or PCs. The huge power of e-commerce cannot be missed. After all, it’s confirmed not only by numbers and forecasts but also changes in customers’ preferences. Comfort and saving time are the new determinants of good shopping.
Photo © Piotr Waniorek/ Żelazna Studio
