Factbox on UPU innovation

01.02.2019 - Mobile applications for the postal sector

Increased access to mobile phones offers the world’s citizens a tremendous opportunity to participate in the digital economy through e-commerce, e-finance or e-government, regardless of their geographic location. Acknowledging these opportunities, postal operators have sought to strengthen their own position in the digital economy, and stress their relevance by providing their own postal digital services through mobile applications.

In 2012, the UPU’s Measuring Postal E-Services Development report noted only 16 of the world’s designated postal operators had introduced applications on mobile devices. The results from the 2015 report, showed an improvement with 51 operators reporting the use of mobile applications. The most recent data available from the 2017 survey indicates that 58 operators are now offering services through mobile apps.

Responding to the situation, the UPU’s Programme of E-Commerce, Digital Economy and Trade created leading edge technology emphasizing mobile applications for posts not currently offering these services. The mobile application enabled Posts to provide notification of the need to collect packages, track and trace packages across different services, search for the addresses of post offices and display them on a map.