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Elizabeth II has been enthroned on British postage stamps for decades. Next to the Queen, to get up to date, the Royal Mail puts a QR code, to send a video to the recipient.
On British stamps, Elizabeth II is now flanked by a QR code.
AFP
UK postal group Royal Mail announced on Tuesday that all of its regular stamps will now feature QR codes to improve mail handling. These will also make it possible to send an animated video to the recipient. A pattern similar to a QR code thus appears next to the emblematic portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. It can be scanned using the Royal Mail app.
“The introduction of unique codes on our postage stamps allows us to connect the physical letter to the digital world”, welcomed Nick Landon, commercial director of the group. If it is to enhance “operational efficiency”, this new generation stamp will also provide access to “additional security features and pave the way for innovative services”, specifies the company.
‘Shaun the Sheep’ opens fire
Initially, customers will be able to access a video of “Shaun the Sheep”, a British animated series from studio Aardman. Special episodes will air throughout the year and customers will be able to choose which video they want to associate with their mail.
Stamps without these QR codes will be valid until the end of January 2023, but can be exchanged for their digital duplicates, specifies Royal Mail. The group, despite a loss of speed in its mail business, benefited from the pandemic with the surge in parcel shipments, while the shops were closed. But following last year’s spikes, the pace of deliveries slowed ahead of Christmas as more shops opened, translating to a 4.9% drop in parcel revenue over the last three month of 2021.
Seven hundred posts cut
The group announced last Tuesday that it planned to cut around 700 management positions to lower its costs, following the Omicron variant caused 15,000 absences and costs of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Stamps with similar codes exist in other countries, notably in France, on international stamps, or in Germany, where traceable stamps went on sale just a year ago.
(AFP)