Abstract:

Various EU member states have employed various techniques to measure consumer preferences in postal markets that link senders and recipients. This is a challenging task that needs careful consideration of technical, economic and social environment evolution of postal consumer needs. The aim of this paper is to use a discrete choice modelling methodology for measuring consumer preferences for postal services in Slovakia. The analysis examines how these consumer preferences vary across 260 residential consumers, specifically focusing on differences between vulnerable (70) and non-vulnerable (190) consumers. The valuations of letter services are measured relative to the price of a stamp, and the total WTP for these services indicates that consumers value the speed of delivery and are willing to pay the higher price of a stamp when deliveries are made earlier about one day. Morning time of delivery was not important for residential consumers, while they value later deliveries higher in general. Residential consumers valued higher to have postal service delivery to their work or home place. We observe that residential consumers were satisfied with the current state of the postal offices' network coverage. They were not highly valued the opportunity to increase or decrease the number of delivery days, and they preferred the status quo in this attribute.