 Good afternoon, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Walter Trezeghan, the chairperson of the consultative committee of the UPU. We are starting the first webinar of our webinar trilogy dedicated to the e-commerce pillar of the consultative committee. Today's webinar is focusing on e-commerce logistics and how it is being transformed as a result of COVID-19. I'm very pleased to announce that we have quite distinguished panelists today. I would like to ask you to mute your microphones, post any of your questions in the chat any time. I will take the opportunity to pick questions and post them directly to the participants. Let me just announce that this is the first of three webinars dedicated to e-commerce. We are planning a second webinar already on the 28th of April dedicated to the e-shopper behaviors and how they are changing in the context of COVID. A third one is already planned for the 19th of May on redefining the universal service obligation in a changing digital postal environment. We will, of course, inform you accordingly about those webinars on time. I would like to welcome our speakers and it is a pleasure to introduce the secretary general of e-commerce Europe, Luca Cassetti, who will give us a keynote coming from e-commerce Europe as they conducted surveys on the impact of the coronavirus on e-commerce. The floor is yours, Luca. Please give us your insights. Thank you. Thank you very much, Walter, for your introduction. It has been more than a year ago now that the coronavirus has started to spread throughout Europe and I think we can all say that it has had an immense effect on our lives, the way we socialize, the way we work, and of course also the way we shop and consume products. As you rightly said, Walter, e-commerce Europe conducted a few surveys in the past months of the pandemic and the most recent one was around Christmas and so the holiday period to try to assess the impact of COVID-19 on e-commerce and the target of these surveys were always our national e-commerce associations 12 Europe, which are now 23. I think we can safely say that e-commerce has proved to be crucial for the continuation of economic activities in Europe, but also for the functioning of the society over the last year and we believe that it is still crucial. You have noticed that consumers have started to rely more and more on e-commerce to safely access the products they needed in everyday life and that ranging from essential products like groceries and health-related products to equipment to work from home or entertainment to go through the lockdown in a little bit easier way. Because of national lockdown measures, unfortunately, many brick and mortar physical retailers have been obliged to close their physical stores, but they also developed some sort of online presence to be able to stay afloat, to survive, and making use therefore of seamless commerce or only channel commerce solutions to accommodate consumer needs during this very difficult period. So an interesting trend in terms of consumption that we have recently noticed in some countries is that consumers remain somehow more attached than ever to their local merchants. We have noticed that in France, for example, but these consumers now expect these businesses to also offer some sort of e-commerce service in addition to the brick and mortar store that they already operate, and this was started by many players, for example, with the implementation of click and collect solutions. However, the situation in the EU regarding non-essential shops providing click and collect services remains a bit fragmented and that came out from our survey as well, because these services sometimes is allowed in member states, in some of them at least, but in some others it is limited, sometimes it is even fully restricted. So this is a clear example that diverging rules are in place across Europe, but also on a national level on click and collect, and in general fragmentation emphasizes the importance of having a more urbanized European approach on issues like click and collect, so to have a sort of level playing field within the single market. So these things are of course a challenge, but also a great opportunity for businesses and retail in general to innovate, I would say. And the lesson that we should learn from the first lockdown is clear, so we witnessed an exponential growth in distant payments, in distant logistics. I mentioned click and collect before, but there are different forms of click and collect, including contactless click and collect, and we actually entered a ward with new ways for consumers to shop, pay, and get products delivered safely to their home. And I'm 100% convinced that this is something that will remain even when the crisis will be over, but it needs more urbanization with more resilience as well. Maybe in terms of difference between the aftermath of the first and the second lockdowns, there has been an improvement in the resiliency of the delivery sector, as reported in our last survey. On average postal and parcel delivery services are better adapted to the second lockdown. There were overall smaller delays flagged by our members, despite the increased number of packages to deliver, especially when we run our service or around the Christmas holidays. Some respondents to the survey have also flagged the fact that due to the combined effects of strict lockdown measures shifting consumer behavior towards e-commerce and the increased demand around the Christmas period, parcel delivery operators have to further adapt, for instance by opening extra pickup points to manage the increased flow of parcels. So here I want to really mention the great work that has been done by the postal and parcel delivery operators over the past months in ensuring that consumers can actually get their orders safely at home. So this is a clear example of how the parcel market is gradually changing and evolving and adapting to the new situation of increased e-commerce activities. But an important point that I want to make here today is that at e-commerce Europe we see the lines between online and offline commerce becoming increasingly blurred because we are moving towards what we call seamless commerce or on-the-channel commerce. So the COVID-19 crisis has really demonstrated in my opinion the importance of digital and especially the fact that there is complementarity between physical commerce and e-commerce from the others. And we believe that this trend is set to accelerate also after the pandemic and of course the pandemic was a great accelerating factor in this sense. And the shift towards these on-the-channel solutions is part of a shift in consumer habits and expectations. If we take another survey that was done in Germany, consumers are increasingly demanding companies to be present online and new companies are increasingly starting their own business online. And according to this recent study that was made by one of our members, 87% of German consumers now expect companies to have an online portal and 67% of new startups in Germany operate through a purely digital business model. So to give you an idea of comparison, this represents a 5% increase compared to the previous year. So increased opportunities to create consumer-centric products and experiences thanks to new technologies are expected to take e-commerce I would say up and beyond its current scope and scale in the years to come. And the online channel will basically reshape our understanding of e-commerce further. Another important trend that I think it is worth mentioning is the shift towards a more sustainable consumption. And e-commerce Europe strongly believes in the opportunity that is offered by the so-called twin digital and green transition. And we actually welcome the work that the European Commission is conducting on the role that consumers can also play in these transitions because consumers can be an important force in the shift to a greener economy. Starting, for example, from the choices they make when they purchase products and services, but more broadly in adopting generally responsible behaviors, for example, in relation to recycling, sorting of waste and so on. And that's why we are convinced that the possibility of leveraging digitalization and digital tools to empower consumers can also be an important factor in the green transition. Because digital tools can give consumers better access to complementary information they need across channels and not only before the purchase but also after the purchase. And that can happen throughout the products lifecycle. That's for the consumers, but as a sector, I think we are also determined to make a positive contribution to the green transition. And that not only to meet consumers' increasing demand for greener commerce, but it is also a strategic business priority for many companies. Many innovative solutions are actually being employed already and are still developed in not only European countries but also abroad. And within e-commerce Europe what we are trying to do is really to stimulate a little bit the knowledge sharing among these companies. For example, through the Collaborative Report on Sustainability and e-commerce that we published, I think it was last year in September and we are planning on updating it this year. Just to mention a few initiatives in this field. AI, artificial intelligence, is increasingly used to plan efficient and greener delivery routes. There is an increasing number of green delivery means by bike, by electrical vehicles. In general, I think that digital can allow better stock management to supply chain traceability. Initiatives like digital labeling can reduce the need for paper. More and more companies are developing recyclable and also reusable packaging in some cases. And there is an increasing number of e-commerce warehouses without forgetting the more concrete fact that maybe digital facilitates also the sales of second-hand products are giving them a second life. At the same time, with our work on sustainability at e-commerce Europe level, we are trying to respond to some preconception that sometimes rise around online purchases in general. For example, the fact that e-commerce has allegedly a disastrous carbon footprint. But if we take, for example, countries like France, according to another recent survey, out of 10 people delivered at home, seven of them actually declared that they would have taken a motor vehicle if they had had to go to a physical store. But again, I want to flag this important point for me that it is not about online versus offline, because we need to go beyond these preconceptions. It is actually the combination of digital and physical retail that is the key to make a positive contribution to the green transition. So to say it in other words, the choice to be made is not to buy online or in a physical store, because this difference is becoming more and more irrelevant, but the choice is to buy responsibly regardless of the channel views. And it's important also to mention that this transition is involving all players starting from the businesses who are constantly proposing new innovative and responsible initiatives to public authorities, which support the retail sector in its digital omnichannel transformation. And finally, to all of us, because at the end we are all consumers, so we should act responsibly in that sense. And of course, an important step to facilitate business's contribution to this transition and empowering consumers is having more harmonization with European level. I mentioned it already before, whether it concerns extended producer responsibility or the definition of concepts like secondhand or refurbished goods and so on. More harmonization of the legal framework in Europe will definitely help cross-border e-commerce, specifically cross-border e-commerce. Maybe having a look at the perception of e-commerce during the COVID-19 crisis, all respondents to our surveys or all our national associations reported quite positive public perception for the sector. The majority of them reported a positive political perception as well, just the majority, not all of them, because in some countries there have been indeed objections raised about the negative effects of e-commerce on local brick and mortar shops. But I have to say that the answers to our surveys, the experiences that have been reported by our members clearly demonstrate that e-commerce as such became a lifeline for many traditional brick and mortar businesses that had to close down because of the lockdown measures, and so they were allowed to continue their activities during this difficult period. And at the same time, e-commerce has greatly helped consumer success goods safely from their home. I also want to make another important point, because despite strong demanding e-commerce these last months, our survey shows a nuanced image of the impact of COVID-19 on the industry. It is true that there are many sectors that have generally seen an increase in sales, but there is also a significant segment that has experienced a huge decrease in sales, some sectors even dealt with a complete lack of sales. Take for example, e-commerce services like travel, online ticket sales, they all experienced huge losses in this period. Another example talking about products is the fashion sector. According to the experiences reported by our members, the fashion sector has seen some improvements compared to the first wave of the pandemic, specifically regarding home wear. But the demand for other types of fashion items like shoes and attire remains pretty low still now. But I would like to try to conclude on a more positive note, maybe, because the majority of the respondents to our question remain hopeful for the future, noting that the acceleration of the digitalization of both businesses and consumers in Europe, which is basically a direct consequence of the pandemic, will result in continuous growth for the digital e-commerce sector. So I think we can safely say that we expect a definite growth in product sales in 2021 and potentially a little growth in the sales of services, but of course, that's depending on the severity of the COVID-19 measures and how the pandemic will evolve. And with that, I would like to conclude and thank you very much for having invited me today for giving this keynote speech. Thank you very much. Thank you, Luca. Thank you very much. Just one quick question before we move on to the panelists. And of course, please stay online, Luca, because we count on you to be one of our panelists as well. Just one quick question to you. Where can the survey you mentioned be found and accessed? And is there more information available? The survey is available on our website. So if you go on e-commerce.europ.u, end up on our homepage, and then you have a partner with a direct link to download the survey. We made other surveys in the past. So there is a COVID-19 section on our website. You can go there and find also the older results. The other surveys that I mentioned, so the French one and the German one, they're not directly available on our website. But if you're interested, feel free to send me an email. And I'm happy to direct anybody who's interested to the correct surveys on the website of our national associations. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. And please share perhaps the link in the chat so it is available to all our participants. With that, I would like to introduce our panelists. We have now a session of highly distinguished experts coming from various areas of e-commerce logistics. And I would like to start with Glyn Hughes, the Director General of the International Air Cargo Association, TIACA, which was recently founded. And with that, I would like to move into the session. Cross-border postal traffic has been hit hard when most passenger aircraft were grounded during the pandemic. And many destinations were not available anymore. Was it possible to switch to air cargo and replace the missing passenger aircraft capacity? What have been the lessons learned during the ongoing pandemic? Glyn, the floor is yours. Great. Thank you very much, Walter. And it gives me pleasure as well to participate in this very important session today. First of all, I have to say congratulations to Luca and his organization for performing a fantastic survey. And the information that he presented just in a few minutes was exceptional. And I would encourage everybody to read the report in full detail because it really highlights how the fact that e-commerce became integrated with the stay-at-home economy. It became a lifeline, both for businesses and for the consumer as normal consumer behavior was interrupted. And it also addressed the issue of, will I be home to receive my delivery? So it almost created the perfect scenario to boost the e-commerce growth even further. Now, from an air cargo perspective coming specifically to your questions, Walter, e-commerce has been one of the aspects which has helped air cargo volumes to return pretty much to pre-COVID levels. But what we've seen over the last 12 months is a dramatic impact in the actual supply side of the capacity. Historically, as I'm sure everybody on this that's participating today is aware that about 50% of air cargo would traditionally move in the bellies of passenger aircraft. Those passenger aircraft provided global connectivity, which was exactly what the postal network and the e-commerce providers actually needed global connectivity with ready available to plenty of capacity. So when you take about 60 or 70% of that capacity away, it has a huge impact on the demand which had actually reduced by not very much. And more importantly, how do you actually satisfy that demand? So we saw two very significant changes over the last 12 months. Firstly, we saw freighter networks enhance their utilization and their capabilities as much as possible. We saw a number of deferred aircraft retirements some freighter aircraft that were parked in the desert were brought back into service to try and shore up that lack of capacity. And then we saw something which nobody had actually foreseen, which was the fact that with airlines having grounded about 60 to 70% of their passenger fleets, many airlines actually started mobilizing these grounded aircraft for cargo only operations. And at one point, there was about 2,500 passenger aircraft being utilized for cargo only services. And of that, there was about 300 of those, which actually had the seats removed, so they could become even greater or could have even greater capacity with lower weight. Now that was a way of getting through that incredible challenge with regards to the capacity crisis. But with the price of oil increasing, it does make the economics of flying those aircraft permanently a little bit more challenging. But it is crucial to keep that network maintained. And particularly when I read that, I think it was and correct me if I'm wrong wrong, but about 20% of post at one point was stranded during the pandemic, which just reinforces the way that the postal system relies upon the passenger network, particularly when it comes to Latin America and Africa, where there traditionally hasn't been a lot of freighter networks. So the industry is having to come up with alternative more permanent solutions to ensure that there is ready access available for the the e-commerce industry and the postal networks. But one of the challenges that comes as a result of that is the focus on volume with the volume of capacity or sorry with the volume of demand now pretty much pre COVID levels, but capacity is still significantly down. Every space every square inch is actually coming under quite a bit of challenge. So I think going forward, there'll probably be an and I think this goes to what Luca was saying as well about responsible purchases and looking at the environmental impact. I think going forward, there will probably need to be more focus on things such as volume, volume utilization, packaging, and that's not just outer packaging in terms of recyclable materials, etc. But it's also product packaging. You know, we know that that a lot of toys and things are packaged for visual display in stores. But if people are purchasing online, there isn't perhaps that need for so much plastic to go into the packaging. So we might be able to get smaller products, etc. being being moved. So therefore it can have a gain, a greater ability to look at the environment and utilization of the aircraft. So, you know, I was trying to touch upon all the areas there and I know time is somewhat limited. But to certainly look at the next three or four years, which is the current forecast timeframe before the passenger networks, international passenger networks will be fully resumed. I think there'll be continued challenges in terms of access to capacity for both traditional mail as well as, as it were, the more modern version of the small parcels, which of course is related to e-commerce. Thank you. Thank you, Glyn, for your first insight on our topic. With that, I would like to move to the Universal Postal Union and would like to introduce Noor Adhan, responsible for the supply chain management coordination of the Universal Postal Union. Noor, with the boom of e-commerce, the designated operators dominate the market disruption of low-weight e-commerce consignments. However, the legislative landscape and the regulatory requirements for this e-commerce consignments have changed from the 1st of January 2021 with the coming into force of the UPU's electronic advanced data regulations and some national and regional legislations, such as the US Stop Act and the upcoming EU ECS2 regulations. So Noor, how is the UPU helping and supporting its members and the designated operators to achieve compliance with the electronic advance data regulatory requirements and all that kind of digitalization? Noor, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much, Walter, and good day to all. And nice to meet some of my old friends like Glyn, Eddie, in this new normal way of doing business and we all hope that we will get out of this sooner. Having said that, as you have just stated, Walter, the designated operators did dominate the distribution of low-weight and the 2 kilo e-commerce consignment. However, the upcoming of the regulations and data now in force from January 2021 definitely had, and the preparation towards it, COVID did have an impact on that. So as you said, the UPU community definitely knew 2021 was coming as far back as 2005. And therefore, the coming into force of the EAD regulations in 2021 and more specifically January for the UPU community and the designated operators was expected. The UPU has been preparing for these regulatory requirements and according to the UPU's roadmap for EAD implementation, which was a result of an adoption of the Postal of Operation Council way back in 2015, the UPU established an EAD steering committee to develop a roadmap and associated milestones for electronic advance data adoption and implementation. Some of the milestones achieved at the UPU on the regulatory fronts include, first of all, the adoption of the Doha Congress in 2012 of articles eight of the Convention on Postal Security and of course, the subsequent adoption of POC of the associated regulatory provisions. There another milestone is the development of the global postal model for the union in response to the emerging EAD requirements and another milestone is the adoption of the roadmap. The guiding principles for the roadmap was to ensure that it is efforts help prepare the UPU members for the adoption of the requirements that have now come into force. The state objectives were addressing several areas and activities. First is the outreach activities to identify the exact nature of the EAD requirements. This involves engaging with the other stakeholders in the industry and regulators and associations, such as the World Custom Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, IATA, the European Commission and so on. Another main area of work for the roadmap was to build and test, as I said, the global postal model to meet EAD requirements and this was to be built and test floor by floor in terms of the messaging standards required and the needs that will come with that, IT systems, solutions, of course, and operational procedures that need to be put in place. Another very important area was awareness raising and capacity building, initiatives among the UPU member countries of the need to meet the EAD requirements and then to support our union member countries, the UPU has several ongoing technical support initiatives such as the UPU's quality of service common fund project, namely the EAD data capture transmission and compliance project in which 143 member countries are currently benefiting from this project and participating. Another major support as maybe some of you are aware is from the US Tide Fund which was earmarked for EAD during the extraordinary congress of the UPU in January 2018, I think, 19, sorry. Currently around 158 DOs, therefore, are already sending the mandatory electronic advance pre-declaration custom declaration for international postal items containing goods. Again, with EAD comes something very important, which is the commercial opportunities that are associated with it. Well, 2020, therefore, was both very important and critical for the UPU as this was the final year of preparations for the EAD regulation requirements that were then upcoming in 2021. Similar to all other sectors and economies, COVID-19 massively disrupted the planned preparations. However, the UPU community showed the resilience and quickly adapted to the situation and, therefore, adapted to the new normal way of conducting business, which is what we are doing today online or remote platforms. Between the two main global UPU technical support projects, I mentioned over 30 regional online workshops were done in 2020 for all the UPU regions, Latin America, Africa-English-speaking, Africa-French-speaking, Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Arab region. During 2020, also 135 designated operators received individual remote custom declaration system training and deployment, and we plan to continue with the same for 2021. Therefore, the UPU has been working very, very hard and supporting the member countries to be ready for the 2021 regulations that are with us, and that's where we are now. And, of course, we want to continue with the same for 2021. Thank you, Walter. Thank you. And please stay online because we will have the pleasure to put another question to you, very much related, of course, to the UPU global postal model. And I would like to take the opportunity also as the chair of the consultative committee that many of our consultative committee members are actually quite involved in electronic advanced data, one of which will be the next panelist. Eddie Richere is the CEO of SHOP Run Back. He's very much engaged, of course, in the Asian cross-Europe cross-international e-commerce markets. And with that, Eddie, traffic from Asia has been severely hit by the pandemic. What have been the solutions to keep the mail flowing? China recovered to a large extent already. What have been the lessons learned to avoid disruptions in cross-border commercial delivery? The floor is yours, Eddie. Thank you. Thank you, Walter. Morning, everyone. And thank you for having me during this nice session. Thank you, Luca Aglain and Noah for the preparation. So, Walter, I would say that the Chinese online seller is probably the most well-prepared community in the world. I would say at the very beginning of 2020, the pandemic did affect traffic and air freight capacity, as Glyn mentioned, due to the commercial flight cancelling. But what we realized is that in two months, all airlines transformed passenger planes to load cargo, which was quite amazing and fast. So, such rapid change recovered the cargo capacity for shipping from Asia. And during the early stage of the pandemic, in the same time, many logistics companies are lack of manpower. But these companies were already well trained during the 2011 peak of the past six years that they have to afford. So, they are familiar with working on their capacity shortage, I would say. And on the top of that, we can see players build new capacity, new gateway terminal, like in Liege, for example, for Alibaba, or in battery in France, and build full charter flight schedule directly from China, from Hong Kong to EU. And then to arrange truck line all across the world for direct injection into postal networks. So, this is the way to let the flow of parcel. On the last mile side, I would say that the players are doing quite well and presorting in China to minimize the working process in the warehouse of last mile companies. I will give you two examples. For example, in the US, Chinese players sort all parcel according to 3,500 locations of USPS, for example. And in Europe, we observe new trends for delivery like a Pudo or local network. So, at the end, I would say that the flexibility and innovation in supply chain design were the key to keep the main flowing during this period. Thank you, Walter. Thank you, Eddie. And please stay on because I would like to come back in a moment or two to ask another question. Luca, thank you for staying online. Let me ask you a further question. For digital commerce, logistic obviously is essential. However, in the recent past, cross-border e-commerce grew twice as fast as domestic e-commerce. Did the pandemic change this trend for good? Do we have to expect similar developments already observed in China where already half of all commerce has been conducted by e-commerce? Do we have to expect this development also in Europe? Thank you, Walter. Thank you very much, Walter, for the question. Although I don't have the numbers because it's a difficult estimate to make, I can of course comment on your question. It's a little bit complicated to understand of also the impact of COVID-19 at the moment. We are running a report. We have commissioned the report for the 2021 year covering also 2020 and the impact of COVID-19 on e-commerce, which we published after summer. So we would maybe know a bit more when this document will be available. But there are some conflicting trends within this COVID-19 crisis because, as I mentioned before, with the pandemic we have seen that consumers in some countries remain really more attached to their local merchants, so proximity shops that you can find in your neighborhoods. But they now expect these consumers that these shops will also offer them some sort of e-commerce option. At the same time, the development of that e-commerce option may lead to an expansion of the local shop to markets abroad. It happened, for example, in Paris for a local cheese shop that was basically selling in its stationery shop just in the neighborhood of Paris. They started selling online the cheese and they found out that actually Belgian consumers are very much interested in buying this cheese. So after they moved online due to the pandemic, this local proximity physical store moved online and started selling cross-border. So of course the COVID-19 pandemic is going to accelerate also cross-border e-commerce. Then of course also have the role of platforms. And here I mean e-commerce marketplaces, which are increasingly used by merchants to reach markets abroad that otherwise might be reachable for them because it might be too complex in terms of legislation. And I don't know for many reasons, there are many reasons for which an SME would decide not to directly sell cross-border to a country but maybe rely more on a marketplace to do some of the work for them. So we have seen an increase in the use of platforms due to the pandemic, especially for merchants that have to close down their physical store and start selling as soon as possible online to survive. So this all led of course to more e-commerce and I would say also more cross-border e-commerce. Maybe not that much during the first wave of the pandemic, but during the second wave of the pandemic we can definitely say that this has almost went back to normal, at least according to what I hear from our members. If it could become like China, I don't know yet. What I would like to see of course is that there is no distinction anymore between physical commerce and e-commerce because it's all about commerce. It doesn't matter if you sell a product online or offline, what the consumer wants is just to buy the product and they want to have a seamless shopping experience. So we have to make it easy for them. But to make it easy for them, we also need the European Union to make good legislation in that sense and trying not to distinguish too much between online and offline as it still happens right now. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Luca, for that. I would like to move back now to air cargo. Glenn, volumes are rising faster than ever. Is the infrastructure sufficient to cater for this growth? Are there any particular safety issues which the airlines are concerned with? Will digitalisation assist in tackling these concerns? Everything is currently seen under the umbrella of digitalisation. Glenn, please answer. I'm very much interested in your Thank you, Walter. And we've heard actually just some very positive aspects from Luca and Eddie with regards to the growth side and from Nor as well, but also raising the complexity. So the way I like to look at it is as the industry grows, my hair losses. So one goes up, one goes down. And as you can see, I can't really have much more loss, which means the industry has had a lot of growth. But joking aside, I think the challenges that lay ahead are quite sizable. You know, you have, as Eddie was saying, that you've got an increased demand in business. You've got an increase in demand for transparency. And I think Luca has talked about the progression going forward, which is going to continue to grow at incredible rates. And I think Nor and the UPU and the other international bodies have really identified well in advance the need for enhanced regulatory information, because safety, security, compliance in general is critical, whether or not it's the stop at so that we know what's actually being moved. Or in the case of air cargo, looking at the safety side, things like lithium batteries, for example, a lot of regulations are in a place which actually will ensure they can be shipped safely. But we need to make sure that there is proper and adequate transparency. So the challenges will also be there for the infrastructure. As we've said, you know, there is an increase in demand. So there is and going to be a challenge on the space that's available. The air cargo industry by even the most conservative estimates will double in the next 18 to 20 years. Yet unfortunately, the space to build new facilities doesn't exist at most airports. So when you can see a proliferation of e-commerce, which going from a B to B environment to a B to C environment means you could move from one consignment of 10,000 smartphones to 10,000 consignments of one smartphone. So you will need to have an advanced system of aggregation of consolidation. You need to do it in a in a facility that's that's highly automated. And I think has already been mentioned, you know, artificial intelligence, advanced automation robotics, all of these will have a significant part to play. Digitalization is critical for optimization. You know, you cannot expect to double the size of the facility. So you're going to have to keep the facilities that you've got and maximize the available utilization. So we will need digitalization to ensure that there is greater information, greater information and accelerated flow of information will allow all members of the supply chain to respond more quickly in terms of preparing for the cargo or the mail to actually come through and then actually responding to those demands coming through with, as it were, the most efficient solutions in place. So I think there's a lot of challenges going forward. But but as an industry, we like these challenges, it's much better to have the challenges of growth than the challenges of contraction. So I think that the e-commerce and the mail that the DPOs have been very clear in articulating what their expected demands are. And the industry just has to make sure that it collaborates with all of the regulatory agencies, with all of the parties involved. And then we can actually have, as it were, an efficient collaborative growth strategy in place with with everybody involved. Exciting times ahead. Thank you, Glyn. I understood that the harmonization of data related to the consignments, the parcels, the packages, the commercial letter post items is at the core of developments and really essential. Obviously, the UPU played quite a significant role in the recent past there, focusing on safety, security, but also on customs and VAT related issues. So, Noa, what is the state of implementation of the UPU global postal model for electronic advanced status among the designated operators? Because we understood that many areas, regions, national areas are of course focusing currently on implementing all those digital prerequisites on the mandatory basis. So there is a certain fear, of course, that the e-commerce flows might even be stopped by authorities. Noa, what is the state of play? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Walter. And definitely the state of play is very important. As you said, the impact can be very disastrous. So, as Glyn also mentioned, and one of the main objective and activities of the UPU's EAD steering committee is to harmonize these regulations in such a way that there is harmony and there's no disruption to the global supply chain when it comes to the movement of small items containing goods. So, as I said, the UPU's global postal model was built to address the technical requirements, the messaging standards required for the implementation of electronic advanced data, and the global postal model has eight messaging flows, which are all in place right now. And also the supporting messaging standards, the IT systems and the operational procedures are all there. Of course, capacity building is one of the main things that, as I said earlier, the UPU is doing to help the designated operators, the adoption of the global postal model, and therefore to address and accommodate all these emerging regulations that you just mentioned. Although all the eight flows are in place, there are still some outstanding issues that the UPU is working with all the stakeholders to try and address. Some of these include, of course, the EDI standards, the standards and the codes between the flows three and four, these are the flows between the customs, especially the destination customs, when it is sending back information on referral or notification of a kind. There is also an area that right now the UPU and the working groups and the world custom organization, and of course the European Commission and all the rest of the stakeholders, Ayata and IKO, is the EAD transit model, because initially it was origin to destination, but transit is becoming a very key important area, and that's an area that right now is under consideration and is being worked on by the different working groups. The global postal model and how to align with other systems, as you said, the ICS-2, and the UPU is very much engaged with the European Commission through all the working groups of the union, such as the customs group, the transport group, the security group, and several other expert teams that are working with the ICS-2 working groups also to try and align those alignments required between the global postal model and especially currently the system that has come into place is the European one, which is the ICS-2. We are also working on the referral protocols, which is very important, and to build the capacity on how to manage referrals, and in this area the UPU, of course, in the last postal operation council, did endorse the some of the issues regarding referrals, such as they do not load protocols, which is very important in the December session and something that is a document that is now being presented and promoted through the project I mentioned to the UPU community to understand and get guidance on how to deal with that. Very important, and of course, which was very much disrupted by COVID-19 was the piloting, because 2020 was, as I said, the final year of preparation and some of the preparation activities was to pilot these floors. Unfortunately, that was disrupted, because as we discussed earlier, the COVID-19 really disrupted the transport network, therefore the piloting could not take place, and that is something that we hope to engage soon. So basically, as I said, the UPU is working with all these stakeholders, whether it is the associations and whether it is intergovernmental organizations similar to UPU, like ICO and the regulatory bodies, to harmonize. One of the main important things you mentioned about harmonization is there's a working group between well-customs organization, where the European Commission is also involved, harmonizing the custom declaration forms, the CN22 and CN23, they're really working on harmonization of that, because these are the forms that really form the basis of the data that is being declared. So this is really a very busy time for all of us, as Glenn said, and an interesting time, and we see how it will span out. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Nure, and I would like to pick up one of the questions coming in already for Noor. There has been a comment that Africa is the next-growth continent, in terms of e-commerce development, obviously, and how could electronic advance data compliance, what role of e-commerce Europe, the UPU, TIACA, and other logistic integrations could play to open the way for Africa as the next-growth continent of e-commerce? Nure, could you give us a short insight? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, and really very, very important and very nice question. Thank you for that. As maybe Luca is also aware, there's the e-commerce Africa project that has really been addressing how to open up the Africa region for the e-commerce and, of course, benefit from all the benefits that come with e-commerce. This, of course, got disrupted also like any other disruption, but the e-commerce Africa project is really live, and this is one of the main initiatives the UPU is doing to open up that region to e-commerce and take advantage of the benefits that come with it. But when we come specifically to electronic advance data, again, the region is heavily benefiting from those UPU's global projects, especially the EAD project, and I believe all the members of the region are benefiting from and participating in this project, and therefore a lot of ongoing work to help them build the capacity and the capability to be able to transmit electronic advance data and benefit from the requirements of the e-commerce consignment that are attracting these regulations. As we speak now, other than the capacity building in terms of training and deployment, the projects are also helping in equipping these designated operators because some of them are challenged with basic equipments to be able to, so that infrastructural support is also being supported through these projects. Thank you, Walter. Thank you, Nura, and I would like to add to that because both of us have the pleasure to witness very, very positive developments based on the deployment of electronic advance data. Only a couple of weeks ago, in the Pacific region, Vanuatu, for instance, moved up from its previous status of a least-developed country, even certain steps up to be a more developed country based on what they established with electronic advance data and a single customs window fully based on digital means, with the help of course not only the UPU but also UNCTAD and others, but there are lots of possibilities emerging through digitalization. So a lot of work has been conducted and a lot of work is ongoing. Thank you, Nura. With that, I would like to move to Eddie again because Eddie is also a leading expert on returns management as well as cross-border fulfillment in e-commerce crossing continents. With ever-rising volumes of low-value consignment, is it sustainable to send items back to sellers across borders, Eddie? Thank you. I just want to say a few words about Africa and the remark from Nura, please. We strongly believe that Africa is the next challenge for e-commerce and we can see strong demand from our partners, Chinese partners, like a company like SpeedA for other companies that are willing to develop and to play a role and collaborate with posts in Africa. Back to returns. I recently read that returns are the second most difficult part of the online retail journey for consumers. So as you know, even for posts or for retailers, it's still a big challenge. Our company Shop and Bag is helping brand multi-channel retailers and logistic players on the wool value chain of reverse logistics with tech platform and key logistic solution optimized for returns. Regarding the question, sustainability is really key for us and our customers and the solution that we that we can generate for them is to help creating value generation from e-commerce return and decreasing waste. Low-value item is still a big issue when we come to a return because usually, and you are right, they are not worth full enough to return a bloat when we talk about cross-border returns. For example, most of the low-value parcel today are from China, and if consumers claim for return, mostly Chinese sellers will prefer as the consumer to keep the item, to get refund and to keep it. The key issue is the return cost is much higher than shipping costs sometimes, and plus we can face the difficulty to get the tax and duty back on higher value items, which is also in our case in our return business a large issue. We can see that some marketplace like Aliexpress or other, they provide return insurance to sellers, so when customers want to return, for example, the insurance will cover the cost, so this is one of the possibilities, but our recommendation for a merchant is to arrange local returns and don't send it back to China. Many players now in Europe are focusing on this return to local and send to second-hand market, which is better, better for environment and better for the planet and can help to increase the resale value of product up to 50%, which is quite interesting and quite good, and you need a reverse supply chain, really flexible for that, but this is the point. Thank you. Thank you, Eddie, and I would like to pick up one of our questions directly to Eddie as well. Mark van der Horst is asking a question related to the changes in the the ATD minimis regulation. How will this in your view at the impact e-commerce sales from instance from China to Europe and related chipping through postal operators, will this drive change in the overall logistic solutions? I mean this is aiming very much at the import one-stop shop system, the special arrangements, the change in bulk clearance, all this will happen on the 1st of July. This is very high up on the agenda of very many fulfillment companies. So Eddie, give us an insight. Thank you. Yeah, sure. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Actually, this is not a very easy topic and when we prepare and we talk about that, many players say that they are already ready with the compliance of electronic advance declaration. And I think for us what we can see is it can help to reorganize and to all players that we are helping to do cross-border from China, many from China to EU are ready for that. And so they really say that there is different way today to do cross-border, but the type of collaboration that we are doing with customs, with a postal network, and should not change that much. That means they are ready for that and prepare that for many months and years. So they are not afraid about that and say that of course the minimis will be a game changer, but now compared to the past years, there is a lot of last mile option and different type of channels that they can use. I think at the same time it will help to not focus only on the low value product. And we can see like from Merchant for example, they now want to focus on heavy and bulky items. For example, from Asia to EU with the higher value product, which is good actually. And so because if we only focus on this market, we have the same trend in Europe and in France and we have the same trend during the last 10 years, like starting with a low product and low value, but now people are moving more and more into high value products. So I think the change in the BAT and the declaration is a good move for e-commerce and players are ready for that. Thank you, thank you, very interesting. But I'm sure we are touching upon this topic many times in the not a distant future again. With that, unfortunately our time is up, so I would like to thank all of you for your very good questions and thank you to our panelists for answering them. Questions not answered will be answered after the webinar when you kindly share your email address for doing so. Let me thank again the panelists and in particular of course the Secretary General of e-commerce Europe for his insightful presentation today. This has been the first of three webinars hosted by the Consultative Committee of the Universal Postal Union on the various aspects of e-commerce. The second webinar is already scheduled for the 28th of April on how e-shoppers behaviors changed in the context of COVID. The third webinar will be dedicated to redefining the universal service obligation in a changing digital postal environment, both again at 11 to 12 Brussels or Burntime. Thank you for participating and looking very much forward to your participation in the upcoming two webinars. Thank you very much and with that goodbye and have a safe and secure day. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.