In an ongoing effort to reinvent itself and deal with the shrinking snail mail market, Canada Post is launching a trial balloon in Toronto.
It is teaming up with Walmart, Best Buy, Future Shop and Indigo Books for the first major Canadian rollout of same-day online shopping.
The national mail carrier announced it’s launching a same-day delivery service for online orders in the Toronto market.
It promises to deliver parcels between 5:30 and 9 p.m. in the evening, if you place an order before 12:30 in the afternoon.
Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton said on Unfiltered with Jill Krop tonight e-commerce is where the future of their business is.
“Nobody delivers more parcels in Canada than Canada Post,” says Hamilton. “We are good at it. We’ve been doing it for many years. There is nobody who can serve all 15.3 million Canadian addresses like Canada Post.”
Ken Mooney with Canadian Postal Workers Union said on Unfiltered tonight they view the initiative as a pilot project that represents willingness to engage in innovate measures.
After decades of profits, Canada Post is now losing money. If the status quo remains, it’s expected to lose a billion dollars annually by 2020.
Last year, Canadians spent 21 billion dollars shopping online, and by 2016 that’s expected to grow to 35 billion.
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“Consumers are already telling us – we want you to deliver more parcels, so catch up and deliver the kind of service we need,” says Hamilton.
Hamilton says they are acutely aware that they need to stay competitive in the market.
“Any major logistic or delivery company looks for countries that are densely populated with a relatively small geography. We have the exact opposite of that,” says Hamilton. “We have 6400 post offices, where if you don’t want your parcel delivered at home, then you can have it delivered to the post office of your choice, which is usually closer than the competitors will send it.”
To deal with the parcel business, Canada Post has sold its iconic downtown Vancouver location and will open a high tech facility in Richmond in early 2014.
In the Lower Mainland, there’s already a 30 percent increase in parcel volume.
Watch: Canada Post same-day service trial
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