Careful analysis of customer data, including travel distance and the amount of services on offer, contributed to New Zealand Post’s decision on which stores to pull out of.

On Tuesday, NZ Post announced its decision to remove its services from 142 retail locations across the country, which caused outrage as some people would be left 13km away from their closest store.

NZ Post consumer manager Sarah Sandoval told Ryan Bridge TODAY the organisation made the decision for which stores to withdraw from after careful analysis of “customer data”.

“Some of the things that we considered in these decisions were, what is the travel distance? What are the services that people need? And also just really understanding that local, local knowledge.”

A Wellington bookstore owner said he is expecting a 35% revenue loss following the closure of the shop’s post counter.

Speaking to Ryan Bridge on Newstalk ZB, Marsden Books Karori owner and manager Briony Hogg said that the only other post shop in the suburb, a petrol station, was staying open.

Sandoval said that choosing what Karori office to keep running was “one of our toughest decisions”.

The Mobil station, which is 700m away from the bookstore, was chosen because it offers a full range of services, she said.

“They have a box lobby, they offer bill payment, and NZTA transactions that we do, as well as sending. So we were thinking about the full suite of services that we offer.”

Sandoval said that traffic and where customers were going also influenced closure decisions.

NZ Post is no stranger to change, Sandoval said, with “significant” declines in postage use and “huge” growth in e-commerce and parcels.

“Our business is really shifting towards parcel sending and parcel collection.

“This is about responding to that, reshaping our network so that we can meet customers where they are and to ensure that we are positioning ourselves for the services that they need from us.”

Parcel sending makes up 70 to 80% of NZ Post’s retail network revenue, she said.

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