Killing it softly…bye, bye, postage stamp!
If you are like me, your use of “snail mail” has approximated zero over the last decade, as virtually all communication has become electronic. Maybe twice a year, I cannot avoid going to the post office to buy some stamps, and one of these occasions would be for sending off Christmas/New Year cards. Some national post offices might allow you to pay for stamps online, and print them out at home…but we do not even own a printer anymore!
However, far from disappearing entirely, the mail volume in the US, for example, has merely declined by 20% over the last decade. With marketing mails holding somewhat steady, their share of total mail volume has increased from approximately 48% to 53%. Overall, there are still over 60bn pieces of “real” mail circulating per year.
Just like cash, handling all these postage stamps at the post office also comes with a cost. Stamps generally still come in sheets, so the stamps have to be separated out individually for each customer, especially if they want specific editions. Stamps have to be accounted for, and — being essentially a cash equivalent — have to be safekept.
So here is a really spiffy idea from the German postal service. By the end of the year, they will introduce the “mobile postage stamp”, which in fact is not a stamp at all. Their new app will allow postal customers to request the desired postage via the app and pay online, anytime & anywhere. They will then receive a multi-digit alphanumeric code that they handwrite on the postcard or envelope in the top right corner instead of a stamp (see picture on top). Done! No more trips to the post office just to buy stamps, no more printing at home. Love it!
Dear Japan Post, could we get the same functionality here as well, please?
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