The Postal Service has an opportunity to enter the peer-to-peer commerce marketplace, expanding it significantly while diversifying its own product offerings, the USPS inspector general has said in a new report.
P2P commerce is a marketplace model in which consumers trade goods, services and rentals directly and has strong growth potential despite inherent challenges such as balancing concerns of convenience, privacy and identity theft.
The USPS could raise confidence among P2P buyers and sellers, broaden accessibility to allow more participation in the P2P market, and provide for enforcement and accountability, according to the report.
For example, it said adding digital identity and in-person proofing services could help eliminate many of the fraud and safety problems being experienced today on some online platforms. Further, the report said potential products such as digital COD and digital escrow in conjunction with authentication services could play a role in reaching the un-banked and under-banked populations in the US, thus allowing more participation in digital commerce.
It said that since P2P commerce applies to both local and geographically dispersed markets, a digital identity service and other postal services for the P2P market would help solidify the Postal Service’s role as a hub within the community for facilitating commerce.