ANALYSIS OF POSTAL MARKET IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

Tržište poštanskih usluga, kako u Republici Hrvatskoj, tako i u većini ostalih svjetskih država, prolazi kroz velike promjene kao posljedica sve češćeg korištenja elektroničke komunikacije te supstitucije poštanskih usluga. Napredak tehnologije utječe i na promjene ponašanja korisnika, kao i na njihova očekivanja u vezi s kvalitetom i brzinom usluge. U Republici Hrvatskoj djeluju gotovo svi na svjetskoj razini prepoznati pružatelji usluga paketne distribucije, a njihov je cilj da u što kraćem vremenu i uz što višu razinu kvalitete usluge isporuče pošiljku primatelju. Cilj ovog rada je analizirati stanje na poštanskom tržištu u Republici Hrvatskoj. Posljednjih godina sve je izraženiji utjecaj supstitucije poštanskih usluga elektroničkim, što se ogleda u padu obujma pismovnih pošiljaka. S druge strane raste broj distribuiranih paketa kod većine poštanskih operatora u zemljama članicama i to zahvaljujući rastu elektroničke trgovine. Navedeni trendovi nisu zaobišli ni hrvatsko poštansko tržište na kojem su se također korisnici okrenuli češćoj online kupovini, što je potenciralo trend rasta dostavljenih paketa. Temeljem provedene analize zaključuje se kako unatoč uspostavi potpune liberalizacije hrvatskog poštanskog tržišta i dalje dominira nacionalni operator, Hrvatska pošta d. d., no on pod utjecajem promjena na tržištu poslovanje više ne temelji isključivo na tradicionalnim poslovima, već širi svoju ponudu dodatnim uslugama.In Croatia, as in almost all other countries of the world, the postal services market has been going through big changes that are the consequence of the growing use of electronic communication and the fact of the postal services being substituted by it. Technological advancement also influences the changes in the behaviour of users and their expectations regarding the quality and the speed of the service provided. Almost all of the world-renown package distribution service providers whose goal is to deliver the parcels as quickly and as efficiently as possible operate in the Republic of Croatia. The goal of this paper is to analyse the state of affairs on the postal market in the Republic of Croatia. Over the last years, postal services have been increasingly substituted with electronic services, as evidenced by fewer letters being sent by the post. On the other hand, the number of the distributed parcels has been growing, due to the development of e-commerce. These trends are also present on the Croatian postal market, where buyers have become increasingly oriented towards online shopping, resulting in more packages being delivered. Based on the conducted analysis, the conclusions are drawn that, despite of the fact that the Croatian postal market has been completely liberalized, the market is still dominated by the national operator Hrvatska pošta d.d. However, under the influence of the market changes, the operator expands its offer by providing additional services and not just relying on the traditional business activities