Barbados Postal Services
The Barbados Postal Services started offering its services as early as 1663 which makes it one of the oldest postal services. It joined the UPU in 1967. In 1984 Barbados Postal Services negotiated their first Express Mail Service (EMS) agreement to the USA and the UK. As of today the Post counts 19 offices around the Island Nation and offers door to door delivery to over 90,000 households. Barbados Postal Services is also affiliated with the Caribbean Postal Union and the Conference of Commonwealth Postal Administrators (CCPA).
| Gov. Authority | Ministry of Home Affairs |
| Regulator | Government |
| Designated Operator | Barbados Postal Services (B.P.S) |
| Monopoly/reserved services | To be completed |
| National Addressing | Addressing system includes street/av., sub-locality, locality and postal code but not yet S42 compliant |
| Participation UPU Prog. | IPDP 2019 / TBC |
E-Commerce Context:
Although being a small market, the Barbados e-commerce landscape is rather an advanced and active one. Card payment providers are available through local banks and Paypal, although the fees are on the high side averaging 4% and above. There are 2 bottle necks that are impacting further development of E-commerce in Barbados:
- A 2% tax for foreign exchange transactions and authorizations render foreign payment providers and or export sales less competitive.
- Local Banks are still requiring high levels of security deposits of up to 20% over a year, which is a great cashflow challenge for SMEs.
Beside these difficulties, the market is very much B2C oriented and local consumers are offered various payment methods and a next day delivery for most of the locations on the Island thanks to the Postal Parcel services and their 19 offices.
Local E-Commerce Champions (Alexa Ranking)
| Name | World Rank | Technology | Main Target | Export | Business Type | E-Payment |
| H1Ad | 5,452 | OS Class PHP | B2C | No | Classifieds | No |
| Wall Classifieds | 6,062 | OS Class PHP | B2C | No | Classifieds | No |
| Tradeboss | 276,814 | Custom PHP | B2B | No | Directory | No |
| EasyAisle | 283,075 | WordPress | B2C | No | Marketplace | Yes |
| Directory Barbados | 1,332,094 | Subrion | B2B | No | Directory | No |
| Cartersonline | 1,404,948 | Magento 2 | B2C | No | Marketplace | Yes |
| Pricewhirl | 1,998,687 | OpenCart | B2C | No | Marketplace | Yes |
| OLC | 3,621,610 | Shopify | B2C | No | Marketplace | Yes |
| Best of Barbados | 3,507,760 | BigCommerce | B2C | No | Marketplace | Yes |
| barbadosshops | 7,666,631 | WordPress | B2C | No | Marketplace | Yes |
Global E-Marketplaces Presence of local sellers (Benchmark with Thailand)
| Name | Barbados | Thailand | Number of | Query to reproduce results |
| Alibaba.com | NA | 8,021 | Seller | Search keyword:Barbados + Filter Supplier Country:Barbados |
| EuroPages.com | 8 | 67 | Seller | Search keyword:Barbados + Country: Barbados |
| eBay.com | 36,018 | 1,067,011 | Listings | Search keyword:Barbados + Advanced search filter location:Barbados |
| Etsy.com | 27 | 14,081 | Listings | Search keyword: Dress + All Filters > Shop Location: Barbados |
Post Ecom Ecosystem
SSL Certificate
Track & Trace
Ecom Regulations
Cyber Crime Laws
Data Protection
E-transaction Law
Payment Solutions
PayPal
SLA Agreements
No Public Data
EDI Messages
ITMATT
RESCON
Addressing
Not S42 Compliant
Location
World Indexes (country performance)
B2C Index (previous):
0
% Delivery Staff:
46
GSMA Index (previous):
66
GSMA Index (current):
65
NRI Index (previous):
0
NRI Index (current):
0
LPI Index (previous):
0
LPI Index (current):
0
OECD TF (previous):
0
OECD TF (current):
0
ITU Security (previous):
94
ITU Security (current):
127
UPU Index (previous):
91
UPU Index (current):
93
Country Performance
The Barbados Postal Services is under-represented on the international global performance indicators. It is yet to be assessed by the B2C E-commerce Index of UNCTAD as well as the NRI and LPI indexes. As for the other performance indicators the Barbados postal operator has seen a reduction of its performance on all 3 indexes where it has been featured and scored. The most significant regression is with the ITU Cybersecurity index where the country has lost 34 positions. Barbados had initially signed an agreement with ITU back in 2013 to establish a National Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT), and we speculate that this regression could be related to the non-implementation or non-maintenance of the CIRT system
Postal Statistics & Performance
Full Time Employees:
480
% MGMT Staff:
50
% Delivery Staff:
46
Post Offices / inhabitant:
16,111
Office of Exchanges:
1
Sorting Centers:
1
Rapid Post Offices:
17
Post Office Boxes:
4,197
E-Merchants (PSP):
0
Remote E-MGMT Sys:
17
Home Delivery Coverage:
10
Network Connected Offices:
17
Parcel Lockers/PUDO/CMBs:
0
Related listings
Established in 1874, the Universal Postal Union (UPU), with its headquarters in the Swiss capital Berne, is the second oldest international organization worldwide.
With its 192 member countries, the UPU is the primary forum for cooperation between postal sector players. It helps to ensure a truly universal network of up-to-date products and services.
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