A new services industry is emerging as businesses and even private individuals seek greater convenience in mailing and delivery services. Running over to the post office, standing in queue, and negotiating one’s personal schedule to fit the often inconvenient opening hours may be a thing of the past. The fact is, for far too long, courier services have been too expensive and somewhat out of reach for the general population. With the emerging presence of online services such as Parcel 2 Courier, calling up a courier is as easy as ever.

IBISWorld Market Research recently updated one of their industry reports to reflect the dynamic environment of this industry. With the continued growth of online shopping along with small business, home-based trading to fulfill a wider variety of niche markets, these regional based courier services can fill the gap between the do it yourself mailing tasks that require waiting in long queues, on one hand, and the large scale corporate accounts required by the global couriers, on the other.

According to their report, which is targeted specifically at the Australian market, online shopping has increased over the past five years at an average annual growth rate of 26%. While the growth in parcel services has increased by only 3.2% per year on average during the same period, much of the growth in this already large industry comes from the growth in online business activity, which was previously itself only a niche market.

The key point in this market phenomenon is a basic shift in courier services targeting individual consumers and small businesses, rather than medium-sized and large businesses. Online entrepreneurs have been quick to develop efficient, automated processes to handle orders – in most cases orders are fully managed through the online interface and back-end processing. This innovation enables smaller parcel services companies to be competitive against the major players, while focusing on specific regions and, in some cases, specialty products and services.

This specialized segment of the industry itself remains highly fragmented with many small businesses currently in a high growth phase. Some of them even outsource to larger companies, and take a small commission or cut off the revenue for simply processing orders and rebooking services. Eventually, some smaller players will emerge as potential rivals, after which point some market consolidation can be expected.

In the mean time, however, parcel courier services is a market innovation with relatively low barriers to entry, high growth trends, and high likelihood for continued success as consumers continue hitting their keys rather than pounding the pavement for their personal shopping.