Starting position

SodaBär turns drinking water into refreshing sparkling water. The company has set up an exchange system for its carbon dioxide canisters, which fit most sparkling water makers. The canisters are delivered directly to your home without any shipping costs. When the canisters are empty, they can be returned to SodaBär by climate-neutral post for refilling. Until now, customers had to post the exchange boxes at the post office.

The joint solution

Together with Swiss Post, SodaBär has developed a more convenient and ecological returns process. Customers can pack the empty canisters into the exchange boxes at any time and without prior notice, apply the enclosed labels on the boxes and place them in the storage compartment of their private letter box. When doing so, they must place the return tab, which they also received from SodaBär, in a clearly visible position on the storage compartment. In this way they indicate to the mail carrier to collect the exchange boxes on their regular delivery rounds. A really good system: the new returns process is not only convenient and saves additional trips – the exchange boxes and the collection by the mail carrier are also free of charge for the customers.

Convenient disposal of coffee capsules

Starting position

Coffee capsules are made of valuable, reusable materials: the aluminium can be recycled and reused. The coffee grounds are composted and turned into fertiliser – and used for example in the vineyards of winegrowers in the Lavaux region. There are more than 3,700 collection points available in Switzerland for recycling. But how do you get customers not to simply throw their used capsules in the bin if they don’t want to go to the collection point?

The joint solution

To prevent used capsules from simply ending up in the normal household waste bin, Nespresso has been working with Swiss Post since 2012 to offer a free collection solution called “Recycling at Home”. Nespresso customers order their coffee capsules on the Nespresso customer portal, at the same time requesting a free recycling bag, which is delivered to their home together with the capsules.

When the recycling bag is full, customers can put the tightly closed bag in their letter box storage compartment whenever they choose and without advance notice. The bag’s yellow tab must protrude from the mailbox so it is clearly visible. The mail carrier can then simply pick it up on their next delivery round and send it to Nespresso for recyclingTarget not accessible. And the best part: the recycling bags and collection by the mail carrier are completely free of charge for the customer.

Putting an end to bottle chaos

Starting position

When it comes to recycling, the Swiss are world champions. But empty PET drinks bottles can quickly pile up at home and the collection point is not exactly just around the corner. With convenient options for consumers, recycling is even easier.

The joint solution

In collaboration with Swiss Post, PET-Recycling Schweiz offers a way to return PET drinks bottles very easily: customers can orderTarget not accessible their paid 45-litre collection bags online, fill them with empty PET bottles and leave them beside their letter box. Swiss Post’s mail carriers pick up the filled recycling bags as they go about their normal delivery rounds and take them to the delivery point. From there, the bags are taken – again as part of normal operations – to the nearest letter center, where PET-Recycling Schweiz collects the bags and feeds the bottles into its own recycling process.

With this solution, PET-Recycling Schweiz with Swiss Post as its logistics partner offers another convenient recycling solution throughout Switzerland – in addition to the 50,000 public PET collection points already in place.

What to do with old TV boxes and routers?

Starting position

In their logistics/distribution, telecommunications companies such as Swisscom or UPC Switzerland want to ensure sustainable returns management for the devices they sell. They want their customers to be able to return old or defective devices, for example network routers or TV boxes, as easily and conveniently as possible.

The joint solution

If a customer wants to return a defective device, they receive a parcel from Swisscom or UPC Switzerland with a documentTarget not accessible including a tab that can be torn off. The surplus or defective device is packed in the parcel and placed in the letter box, and the yellow tab is fixed to the letter box so that it is clearly visible. The tab tells Swiss Post’s mail carriers that there is a parcel to be picked upTarget not accessible, and they take it to the delivery point, where the parcels are collected and forwarded to Swisscom or UPC Switzerland. The devices are repaired and put back into circulation by the two companies.

Easy home delivery of books

Starting position

Although our society continues to become more and more digital, there is still a demand for books and physical media. At the same time, customers want anytime, anywhere, on-demand solutions for easy access to books. Against this background, the public libraries in Aarau and Basel were looking for a new sales channel that would allow them to meet the need for more flexible borrowing of books and media, and provide them to their customers quickly and easily.

The joint solution

Working together with the Aarau and Basel public libraries, Swiss Post launched a regional home delivery service for books and other media that allows customers of the libraries to order books conveniently, either online or over the phone. The libraries deliver the books, packaged and addressed, to a central Swiss Post point of contact in the region, from where Swiss Post’s mail carriers deliver the media to recipient customers’ letter boxes the next day on their normal delivery rounds.

If required, customers of the Aarau public library can place borrowed books back in their letter boxes to return them conveniently. On delivery, the customers receive a collection set with an address label and a tab for their letter box. With this solution, the Aarau and Basel public libraries are creating a new, innovative sales channel for themselves and at the same time making the lives of their customers easier.

Seasonal and regional produce delivered directly to letter boxes

The background

More and more people are consciously opting for regional, sustainable produce and appreciate fresh bread from their local bakery or eggs, vegetables and fruit directly from their local farms. But in our hectic everyday lives, we often don’t have the time to pop to our favourite farm shop or bakery.

This means that local producers miss out on sales. They don’t reach regular and new customers as well as they might. Market potential is not harnessed, as consumers don’t even go to their local bakery or farm shop due to lack of time or convenience.

The joint solution

Thanks to LocalOnly, Switzerland’s digital weekly market, and Swiss Post’s logistics network, producers can reach any household in their catchment area, meet their existing customers’ needs and attract new customers. Discover how many households you could reach in your area with the potential calculator.

Customers can easily order regional produce online with a flexible subscription or as an individual order. The products are sent to the delivery point in their region early in the morning and delivered on the same day by Swiss Post’s mail carriers on their regular rounds. The deliveries are placed in the storage compartment of the customer’s letter box or left by the front door of the building – just as fresh as products in the village bakery or straight from the farm.

To minimize the administrative workload involved in processing the products and orders for producers (such as farmers, bakeries, dairy farmers and butchers), a producer tool is available to manage customer data, display product lists and generate address labels. The LocalOnly marketing team also supports producers with efficient and proven marketing measures and individual advertising, enabling them to achieve clear success in their catchment area – both online and offline.

We look forward to hearing from you via LocalOnly@swisspost.ch or at localonly.ch/partner.

Fresh from the farm directly to the customer

Starting position

Farms and speciality shops are increasingly looking for alternative sales channels with a view to expanding their direct marketing. They want their products to reach more customers quickly and easily. At the same time, more and more people are making a point of buying regional vegetables, fruit or eggs in season, preferably directly from local producers. For a society with environmental values, short transport routes and local sourcing today constitute important selling points.

But not everyone is willing to head off to the nearest farm; some would prefer convenient delivery directly to their home. For farmers, the coordination and implementation of these home deliveries can take a lot of effort. In this area, Swiss Post offers a smart solution.

The joint solution

The “Regional product deliveryTarget not accessible” service gives farms and speciality shops a new way to sell their regional and seasonal products. Swiss Post facilitates this by making use of its dense logistics network, taking care of local delivery of ordered goods to the customers of the farms. The farmers decide whether they bring their products early in the morning to their Swiss Post branch themselves or whether their mail carrier picks them up from the farm. Either way, the fresh products are delivered to customers on the same day on the regular rounds.

This means that vegetables, fruit and other products are delivered to their destination fresh – and it’s affordable, environmentally friendly and direct. The end consumers then leave the empty reusable containers in their letter box, and Swiss Post’s mail carriers take them back to the delivery point, where they can be reused for the next delivery.

“Swiss Post has really eased our workload. Thanks to their logistical support, we’ve been able to quickly tap into new customer groups and also grow our business,” says vegetable farmer Carina Rohner, from the Rhine Valley in St. Gallen, commenting on the collaboration.

More time for the core business

Starting position

In practically every company, the daily workload associated with postal activities is high: in the morning, somebody from the company has to collect its business mail in person from the business counter at the Swiss Post branch or from the P.O. Box facility. The items then have to be sorted, registered in some cases and distributed internally, possibly to several business locations.

In the course of the day, there is then also the workload associated with the processing of outgoing mail consignments. Weighing, sorting by format, filling out accompanying documents, addressing, packing, franking, filling into containers, and not least posting at the nearest post office are also time-consuming activities.

The joint solution

All of these activities can be outsourced to Swiss Post. Swiss Post offers tailored “Mailroom Services” with a wide range of service options for the physical mailing of information and goods – working for example together with the Hirslanden Cecil private hospital in Lausanne. In the morning, Swiss Post delivers their consignments to the Bois-Cerf and Cecil hospital locations. Daily newspapers are also delivered to both locations, and unsold newspapers collected. In the afternoon, Swiss Post takes care of all parcel and letter mail at the Cecil hospital. Outgoing parcels and consignments are collected for example from the “Sterilization” department, franked and taken away for mailing.

Other services can be integrated if required, such as watering plants or changing printer cartridges, depending on the operational needs of the company. This allows companies to reduce the costs of their logistics processes while at the same time freeing up valuable human resources.

Cost optimization thanks to the end-to-end process

Starting position

There are electricity, water and gas meters throughout Switzerland that have to be read: measuring the energy consumption of their customers is how utilities secure their revenue. This is done using various different meter systems that are read manually or semi-automatically. Today, most utilities have their own staff to read their meters and operate their own infrastructure. Outsourcing of the meter-reading process yields a great deal of savings potential for these utilities.

The joint solution

Swiss Post’s mail carriers call at four million households every day, and they can now also read meters (electricity, water, gas) for utility companies on their daily delivery rounds. The readings are quality-controlled and sent punctually to the utilities for billing. The combination of Aveniq’s process and system expertise and the meter readings by Swiss Post’s employees creates an integrated end-to-end service, significantly reducing the outlays for utilities.

One important aspect of reading meters is data protection. The data is securely exchanged between the mobile devices used by Swiss Post staff and the servers operated by each of the utilities, and is stored in encrypted form on servers in Switzerland. The data remains in the possession of the utilities at all times.

Markus Schiesser, Senior Solution Manager Utilities at Aveniq: “For many people, Swiss Post’s mail carriers are trustworthy individuals – it’s great that they can read meters on their postal rounds.”

Sorting of promotional letters directly at the letter box

Starting position

How can companies combine advertising campaigns for existing customers with campaigns to attract new customers? Existing customers should be addressed personally and the relationship with them should be intensified. At the same time, an important aspect of the effort to acquire new customers is to appeal to them with an exclusive offer. And existing customers should of course not receive the advertising twice. This is where Swiss Post’s combined mailing comes in – for example in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The joint solution

Every World Children’s Day, UNICEF runs a fundraising campaign using Swiss Post’s “Combined mailing” delivery solution. Existing sponsors receive a personally addressed letter. Potential new customers receive an unaddressed promotional letter.

Swiss Post’s delivery staff then sort the addressed from the unaddressed items directly at the letter box, making sure that existing sponsors do not receive the item twice. Combined delivery optimizes print runs and helps save on postage costs. The purchase of expensive external address data is also no longer necessary.

For advertising with an “extra helping of attention”

Starting position

Advertising for products and services is consumed through various electronic and physical channels, whether on the screens in buses when commuting, on billboards on the road or on television and the Internet in the privacy of the home. In most cases, there is no genuine, direct, interpersonal contact.

With promotional mailing, the situation is usually the same. The physical mailing in the letter box is always in direct competition with promotional mailings from competitors. This raises the question of how the attention of recipients can be channelled more strongly towards your own mailing, and hence to your own products and services.

The joint solution

Addressed or unaddressed promotional mailings with an explicit additional benefit (voucher or gift) can be handed over personally by our mail carriers at the front door – in face-to-face conversation with the recipients, and with a spoken message defined by the advertising company. Delivery staff never act as sales people for the client, but rather as bearers of a message with positive connotations, ensuring that the mailing is given an “extra helping of attention”. Swiss Post discusses how the personal handover is to be made with the advertising companies in advance. Almost anything that a mail carrier can transport can be handed over personally – whether it’s a packaged consignment or an unpackaged item with additional benefits for the recipient.