UPU News : Small businesses want to use postal services, says eBay

11.01.2016 - Postal services are facing a golden opportunity in the e-commerce market, if they can offer reliable, affordable, fast and traceable cross-border delivery, according to eBay.

You've got mail (Photo: B-sides)

Stefan Krawczyk, head of eBay’s government relations team, revealed that 93 per cent of businesses using eBay in Europe engage in cross-border commerce. The majority are micro firms with fewer than 10 employees. 

Efficient postal services are at the heart of the new trade model, he said. 

“Despite experiencing delivery problems, there is great willingness among small business owners to forget about the private package operators and turn to what they know best – their local post office,” Krawczyk said. 

With a 20-year history, eBay is one of the longest-running online market platforms in existence. 

“eBay is sitting on very rich data. We see the transactions and what people are selling and where the products are sent,” Krawczyk said.

Inclusive trade

E-commerce is the way that small businesses that would otherwise have fallen by the wayside can be included in the world economy, he explained, giving an example of a small-town Italian shoemaker, who transformed his ailing family business through online sales. 

“The key to this story is that this guy’s business would have been nothing if it wasn’t for postal services. For the smaller business, it’s the Post that makes the difference – because it is there nearby and hopefully it will stay there,” Krawczyk said.

Krawczyk appealed to Posts to solve problems in cross-border parcel delivery. 

“The answers are pretty easy and straightforward and there are best-case example and scenarios there to guide us. These micro-multinationals need your help.” 

Ecosystem

Between 2010 and 2014, eBay saw an increase of 48 per cent in the number of firms in the European Union (EU) selling to 15 or more countries. Almost all the EU-based firms using eBay sell to customers in four or more continents.  

“You will be surprised to see that very remote regions with low GDP and high unemployment are often the ones that have the highest density of internet-savvy sellers,” Krawczyk said, urging delegates to think of e-commerce as a tool to achieve economic development.

The complexities of exporting often lead to high failure rates among small entrepreneurs. Only 37 per cent of small sellers in the EU are still exporting on eBay after three years. 

Krawczyk said it was essential for small and medium sized enterprises to be able to sell their products through mobile channels and that platforms like eBay made this possible.

“There is a whole ecosystem of small entrepreneurs and they need third-party marketplaces like us,” Krawczyk said.   

“That’s where the economy is going and that’s where the opportunities lie,” he added. 

Krawczyk was speaking at a recent conference on trade facilitation at the Universal Postal Union headquarters in Berne.