Investing in Profitability

Every postal operator is dealing with the same pressures right now: mail volumes are declining, parcel competition is intensifying, and costs are climbing faster than revenue in many markets. Escher’s 2025 Future of Posts research found that 82% of operators say rising costs are already limiting their ability to invest. 

Even so, the industry is clearly splitting into performance tiers underneath that shared pressure. A little over a third of operators are posting strong margins. Another share is holding roughly steady. The rest are still working to close the gap to that same level of financial performance, and it’s a wide gap: a 52-point spread in EBIT margin separates the strongest performers from the operators with the most ground still to make up. That spread keeps growing. 

The good news is that the difference isn’t a mystery. The research points to a consistent set of choices that keep showing up among the operators pulling ahead. Here’s what stood out. 

Business mix moves the needle 

Some of the widest margin performance in the industry comes down to business mix. Operators who have built a genuine second profit pool, through financial services or through global logistics and express capabilities, are outperforming by a wide margin. The strongest of these groups average double digit EBIT margins, well ahead of operators still primarily anchored to traditional letter and parcel delivery. A banking license isn’t a prerequisite here either. Several top performers have found other ways into financial services, whether by partnering with banks or acting as a physical point of presence for financial partners in their markets. 

Delivery networks: investment keeps paying off 

Strong performers are 60% more likely to say automation will be one of their highest impact investments, and they are more than twice as likely to be actively expanding their networks rather than consolidating them. The logic is simple. Automation changes the underlying cost profile of a delivery, which creates room to invest further. Operators earlier in that journey are understandably more focused on restructuring and optimization first. Those are lower cost moves that make sense as a starting point, even if they don’t reach the same margin upside yet. 

Retail networks: ownership still pays off 

98% of operators say their own post offices remain their top retail priority. That part is universal. Where it diverges is what operators do with that network next. The strongest performers are 74% more likely to rank customer experience as their top value driver, and they’ve generally made more progress on self-service. Others are leaning more heavily on third-party retail partnerships to manage cost and reach without the same capital outlay. That’s a reasonable near-term approach, even if it trades some long-term margin potential for flexibility. 

Returns is an underused opportunity 

This finding stood out the most. Returns is rated the lowest priority in the industry overall, even though third-party research puts global returns growth at 8 to 10% in 2025 alone. The operators seeing the strongest margins are 70% more likely to be building rapid returns capabilities, and 85% more likely to treat “start at home” returns as a strategic priority. Elsewhere in the industry, most operators simply haven’t seen returns volume grow yet in their own networks, which may say more about where those returns are currently flowing than about future demand. 

Cross-border is where the next opportunity sits 

93% of top-performing operators say cross-border parcels are their single most important product investment over the next three years, and they’re focused on getting the details right: real-time duty and tax calculation, accurate product classification, and staying ahead of a regulatory environment that shifts almost monthly. For operators with more ground to make up domestically, cross-border tends to stay a source of friction, with more manual processing, more compliance catch-up, and longer transit times. It’s a clear signal of where the next wave of margin opportunity is likely to come from. 

AI adoption is splitting the industry 

This is the starkest contrast in the whole study. Operators with the strongest margins are more than twice as likely to run a formal, measured AI program, and they report real returns, typically 11 to 20% in cost savings. Elsewhere, more than half of operators either aren’t running an AI program at all or can’t say what kind of return they’re getting from the one they have. Most point to a shortage of skilled talent or internal resistance to change as the blocker. The advice that keeps coming up in conversations with postal CEOs is to start small, start in back office cost takeout where the return is easiest to measure, and use those savings to fund the next stage. 

Speed only matters when it matches the offer 

Across the industry, there’s real agreement that consumer demand for control over delivery, meaning visibility, timing, and choice, is the single biggest force shaping e-commerce over the next five years. Where operators differ is in how they respond to speed. The strongest performers are 65% more likely to say changing attitudes toward delivery speed will be a top five impact, but they get there by matching speed to the offering rather than treating same-day as a universal standard. Others still rate same-day delivery as far more important across the board, treating maximum speed as a must-have rather than a fit-for-purpose choice. 

What ties it together 

Across every one of these areas, the pattern holds. The operators pulling ahead on margin are making deliberate, measured investments: in automation, in owned retail experience, in returns capability, in cross-border precision, and in AI programs they can actually track. None of it is about doing more everywhere. It comes down to being disciplined about where the investment goes. 

What’s next? 

This is only part of the picture. The full webinar recording goes deeper on every one of these areas, including a look at what’s shaping up in the industry’s 10th edition of this research. That report, due out in the coming months, points to AI crossing the tipping point as a top three investment priority, and industry profitability turning a corner for the first time since 2022. 

Want the complete picture? Sign up below to watch the full session on demand, available in multiple languages.