Pitney Bowes Inc., a global technology company, is celebrating 100 years of delivering innovative products and solutions to drive commerce. The company provides solutions in the areas of e-commerce, shipping, mailing, and financial services. Founded in April 1920 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, this New York Stock Exchange listed company (NYSE: PBI) has supported clients from across the globe over the past century—90 per cent of whom are on the Fortune 500 list. From sending important and valuable documents to freight shipping, or, say in India, stamp duty collection for state revenue departments, Pitney Bowes has simplified customers’ business processes across geographies with its various shipping, mailing and B700 series of solutions.
Trends and Capabilities
According to the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, global parcel volume surpassed 100 billion in 2019, reaching 103 billion. Over 3,000 parcels were shipped every second in 2019 in the world’s 13 major markets. The report forecasts parcel volume could more than double to reach 220-262 billion by 2026, with a 14.8 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2020-2024. India has the third-highest percentage increase after China and Norway, experiencing growth of 19 per cent in volume, shipping 2.8 billion packages, and reaching a CAGR of 22 per cent since 2013.
But the forecast, hinged on the increased uncertainty and volatility fueled by the global coronavirus pandemic, provides a range that shows volumes could be as low as 200 billion or as high as 316 billion parcels in six years. The pandemic has induced adoption of innovative or move-with-the-times trends such as hyper-local delivery, online selling, and local warehousing strategy. These are impacting the customer shipping experience by shortening delivery times, lowering delivery costs, and adding flexibility. The increase in parcel volume reveals the growth opportunities for small businesses and online sellers. Pitney Bowes is aiming to help businesses manage their operations in this changing environment, to help ensure business continuity for the long run and is offering multi-carrier shipping solutions—parcel booking (API Rate card), conveyor, and parcel weighing. The company has successfully implemented an integrated parcel booking and weighing solution for one of the ASEAN postal organisations to help in equipping local small sellers and online businesses.
“We are continually working on solutions that enable commerce and bring efficiencies to our small-medium customers, large postal organisations, or online sellers,” says Venkat Rao, Vice President and Country Head, Sending Technology Solutions, India and ASEAN Sales at Pitney Bowes.
Stamp Duty: Secured, Seamless
In India, Pitney Bowes has been helping state governments in their stamp duty revenue collection through solutions based on the company’s proven encryption technology, which is secured and seamless. “Pitney Bowes is helping state governments, banks, financial institutions in simplifying stamp duty revenue collection and managing stamp papers, enabling digital reach to the citizens in urban and rural areas to pay stamp duty in a convenient, simple and highly secured manner,” says Venkat Rao. Banks, financial institutions, and government departments require technology to provide on-demand stamp papers to customers for a secured collection mechanism.
The online process ensures the right denomination is available and gives greater accountability to the government in tracking and mapping transactions. The B700 tax meter solution uses Pitney Bowes' patented hardware-based digital signature and wallet for each site facilitating cutting-edge security features. The designed solution can enable prepaid stamp duty collection with zero commission charges, making it the most inexpensive way of revenue collection. This ensures government funds will not remain on a float with the service provider or vendor. The future of secured revenue collection is now available—smart, secure, and reliable, the Pitney Bowes B700 Version 2 tax meter system.
In its 100th year, Pitney Bowes is poised for “the next 100 years”, creating digital solutions to solve new-age e-commerce challenges and help state governments deliver digital services to its citizens.
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