Usps Report

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SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis is the marketing tool available to assess the company’s internal capabilities – strengths and weaknesses – and environment factors that are outward bound – opportunities and threats – influencing its business operations.

Strengths

Because of their dependable services that they have been providing, historically, USPS has earned strong brand equity amongst its consumers. They have a long history in providing their services. Going down their memory lane, people have good news delivered to them via a postal mail, in the form of written letters. Attaching such tangible cues to the postal service has strengthened USPS’s reputation in the market. The company has extensively invested in its intellectual property. The strong intellectual property of the company has added immense products and services they provide. Naming a few of them are – First-Class Mail, Click-N-Ship, Carrier Pickup, Registered Mail and many others. The company has subtly differentiated between its products and services, capitalized on innovation opportunities; this has given USPS a competitive edge in the market.

USPS is known for their extensive coverage. Exploiting their largest vehicle fleet in the industry, USPS postal delivery service has been able to reach the remotest corner of the country. The company has one of the most extensive parcel delivery network and infrastructure.

With cost effective operation model, USPS has been delivering packages and mails at the cheapest cost in the market. There delivery service is ubiquitous, not only in the domestic market but also in the international market. The company is known to meet its committed delivery assignment irrespective of the extremes of weather or natural challenges.Weaknesses

USPS did venture out in the international market, but its share has been very limited on that front. Much of its revenue yields are attributed to its domestic delivery of packages and mailers. Since the company has not been able to attract customers in the international market, its risk is not diversified enough, lacking international freight carriers. Over dependence on domestic market has made the company's profitable market base, geographically, quite limited.

The company comes under rigid legal regulations that prevent it from introducing new product and services, catering to the changing needs of its customers. Such legal restrictions have kept the company away from innovating and investing in diverse technological fields or taking advantage of information technology. The company has not been able to diversify its revenue generation streams, resulting in an unhealthy long-term financial viability.

Hefty expenditure on its employees’ health benefits and retirement plans has put the company under huge financial obligations. Poor return on investment and lower revenue yields have added to the adversity of the company's financial structure. Because of the huge debt in the company's balance sheet and income statement, the company lacks robustness in being a market leader to provide innovated products or services. The company lacks enough resource to invest in Marketing Research.

Ageing employees have diminished the company's growth with a competitive advantage in the market. Moreover, labor unions have slowed down the company's marketing decision making and decision implementation.

Opportunities

In the recent past there has been an unprecedented increase in online retailing and e-commerce has flourished exponentially. All the online transactions are done from the comforts of the consumers’ home. These customers no more step into a brick-and-mortar store. Therefore, catering to their transportation needs and delivery of their online shopping cart at the consumers’ door-step is a very lucrative and an ever-expansive business opportunity.

E-commerce has been driven by the parallel technological advancement of smart-phones. Various e-retailers have come up with mobile applications for online shopping. As online shopping becomes more-and-more convenient for consumers, the online retailers become more dependent on delivery services available in the market for their logistics. Thus, such an increase in online retailing would imply parallel growth in revenue generation.

At present USPS has a contract with FedEx to cater to its domestic air transportation service. To complement its huge vehicle fleet, USPS, with an immense growth opportunity in investing and expanding its global air freight sector, can explore and venture on that front. An effective Air Carrier would add to the company’s asset by not only saving it from contracting with its competitors but also adding to its revenue yields taking contracts from other players in the industry.

Threats

There are many upcoming private players in the delivery industry that have assumed the position of being giants in the field of providing logistic solutions. USPS is faced by competition not only in the domestic market but also in the international market. The key competitors of USPS in the domestic market are FedEX, UPS – United Postal Service and many other small players. The competitive landscape for USPS has become more global. Even international player, like, DHL and others are moving out of their geographical area and partnering with other indigenous players to expand their revenue base. With an increase in competition there is always an incentive to offer still cheaper service with low pricing pressure, further lowering USPS’s revenue and margin.

The political environment world over could be in a state of turbulence, resulting in concerns about terrorism at both domestic and global levels. Such terrorist threat would result in the implementation of stricter regulation for international border transportation. Abiding by the regulations would mean an increase in the operation cost. Expenditure to provide a more reliable, and safe and secure delivery would cause more diminished revenue and reduced operating efficiency. If the company fails to comply with the rigorous safety and security standards not only would it be counted amongst the defaulters but its reputation in the market would also be compromised.

Lastly, but not the least, the ever-expanding information technology, complemented by the development of digital and smart devices, has made the correspondence mailers a thing of the past. E-mailers, social-media, e-cards are preferred means to communicate, socialize and greet; these have caused the revenue of the traditional mailer industry to decline

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