Corona, News

Coronavirus: Swiss Post sees boom in online services

Whether it’s “My consignments”, “WebStamp” or the “Brotpost” bread delivery service, Swiss Post’s online services are experiencing a real boom during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fredy Gasser

Rich Content Section

Home delivery of fresh bread.

Coronavirus is severely restricting personal contact or making it more difficult due to face masks, disinfectant or social distancing. So, it’s good that Swiss Post also provides many of its services online. And these digital services have been booming for weeks.

Sending and receiving parcels contactlessly

The “My consignments” online service was popular even before the coronavirus outbreak, with around 1.6 million customers using the service. Visits to the “My consignments” website alone have doubled since 23 March 2020, rising from 150,000 to 300,000 a day. The service is currently seeing three times more new customers than before coronavirus – the figure currently stands at around 2,100 a day. Some 70,000 orders are placed per week.

The major asset of the “My consignments” service is the contactless handover of parcels. Customers can arrange for parcels to be deposited at a specified, secure location – whether it’s the building entrance, in the stairwell, in the garage or on the terrace. Only Swiss Post knows these locations and the service can be modified or stopped at any time. Both registered and unregistered parcels can be received contactlessly: registered items via the “Deposit consignment” service and unregistered items by issuing an authorization for delivery.

The “pick@home”online service, where customers have their return parcels collected free of charge from their home address, is also booming. Around 2,500 collection orders are usually issued a day on average. In April 2020, that figure rose to an average of 3,500 orders a day.

Using the contactless parcel deposit and parcel collection services meets the Federal Office of Public Health’s social distancing requirements for the current situation.

WebStamp proves a hit

Similarly, WebStamp is flourishing at the moment. Three to four times more new customers registered for this online stamp service in April than in a normal month. Whereas it would usually see around 3,000 to 4,000 new customers in a normal month, that figure shot up to 13,815 in April! In total, WebStamp currently has 328,233 registered customers who are regularly contacted with news on the service. An incredible 38,000 customers used WebStamp in April!

PostCard Creator app a big success

The PostCard Creator app also achieved new record highs. The volumes for both free and paid postcards have practically doubled over recent months. Over one million postcards were created in April, with the exact figure standing at 1,065,590. The trend for paid postcards sent abroad – a service which has been available for a year – is also very encouraging. A new daily record was reached on 6 April 2020 when almost 42,000 postcards were printed and sent. The hype has since died down, with the figure currently standing at 30,000 to 34,000 postcards a day.

Bread delivery proves popular

The “Brotpost” bread delivery service is another of Swiss Post’s online services. It has also proven hugely successful during the coronavirus crisis. The home delivery of fresh bread from local bakeries increased six-fold during the coronavirus month of April 2020 alone.

Upturn at postshop.ch

Swiss Post’s online shop has recorded a “significant increase” in orders since the lockdown. Above all, more shipping materials, such as PostPacs, envelopes and Registered Prepaid, have been ordered. The sale of gift cards, mainly for Netflix subscriptions, has almost reached levels typically seen during the Christmas period. The launch of the “COVID-19 Solidarity” commemorative stamp contributed to an increase in sales of other special stamps compared to the typical average.

Huge response for Profital

“Swiss people will not rush to the shops after relaxation of lockdown measures” – it was not just the “Der Blick” edition from 22 April 2020 that reported on the results of a major survey of 5,000 Profital users. The survey triggered an unexpectedly high media response. Tages-Anzeiger, Swissinfo, Radio Tele Svizzera Italiana and the trade magazines Werbewoche and Horizont also covered the story, highlighting that Profital is increasingly broad-based. The Profital app makes the brochures and special offers of over 90 stores available online. App users were interviewed for the survey. Profital itself has recorded twice as many downloads and website visitors since the coronavirus outbreak compared to before.

Special offers for municipalities, hospitals and doctors

To enable Swiss municipalities to communicate digitally and, in turn, contactlessly with their citizens, Swiss Post is providing its “My Local Services” municipality app free of charge until the end of the year. Some municipalities are already taking advantage of this offer.

We are also providing the “Emergency Eye” tool free of charge in the current situation. It allows doctors and hospitals to carry out initial consultations with patients via mobile phone camera. “Emergency Eye” is used on a daily basis at the Medbase Group, with around affiliated 200 doctors.

written by

Fredy Gasser

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