THE DEATH OF A POSTMAN

Picture this: It’s the year 2000, and a Danish postman, Lars, wakes up at dawn, grabs his stack of letters, and begins his route. He’s the lifeblood of neighbourhoods, the bearer of news, love letters, and overdue bills.

Fast forward to 2026—Lars is no longer needed. The Danish postal service has just announced its final letter delivery, shutting down a 400-year-old tradition. The culprit? Digitalisation. (The Guardian, 2025).

But Lars isn’t the only one whose world has changed.

Back in 1999, a company in Poland called InPost was setting up shop. It started as a humble challenger to the state-run postal system, but instead of clinging to the old ways, it saw the writing on the wall. The future wasn’t in letters but in parcels, e-commerce, and speed. So, it pioneered (APMs) automated parcel lockers, making deliveries more efficient, sustainable, and better suited to the online shopping addicts we’ve all become. Today, InPost is Europe’s leading out-of-home e-commerce delivery provider, proving that adapting to change isn’t just smart—it’s survival (InPost, 2023).

And they weren’t alone.

The Businesses That Saw the Future

The digital revolution has not only tweaked competition but tore up the rulebook. Today’s successful companies are not those with just a good idea; they are those that have paid attention to their customers, spotted the change on the horizon, and evolved before they were left behind. (ScienceDirect, 2025).

Take Netflix. It started as a DVD rental service, but while Blockbuster was still making people drive to its stores, Netflix spotted a shift in behaviour—people wanted content on demand. So, it went all in on streaming, used data analytics to track what we watched (and rewatched), and even started producing its own content based on those insights. Boom—entertainment giant.

Consider Amazon. Initially, it was an online bookstore. It soon realised that if people were willing to purchase books online, they would likely buy everything else as well. This shift necessitated improved logistics and eventually led to cloud computing. Amazon Web Services (AWS) was established, and suddenly, Amazon was not merely selling products—it was powering half the internet.

Adobe also recognised the shift. Do you recall when you had to purchase Photoshop in a box? Adobe realised that the future lay not in selling standalone software but in maintaining subscriptions. Enter Adobe Creative Cloud, now an indispensable toolkit for professionals worldwide and a much more reliable source of revenue for Adobe.

Marketing in the Age of Digital Stalking (Oops, I Mean Data)

Marketing used to be a shot in the dark. Billboards, TV ads, and a lot of guesswork. Now? It’s a precision science. Every click, scroll, and pause you make online is a goldmine of insight.

Spotify knows when you’re in the mood for sad songs at 2 AM. Netflix predicts your next binge before you realise you’re about to spiral into a three-season commitment. The brands that are winning today aren’t just selling products—they’re tracking our every digital footprint, understanding what makes us tick, and using that data to be in the right place, at the right time, with exactly what we want.

In this new digital world, thriving businesses aren’t just the ones with great products. They’re the ones that understand you—your habits, your desires, your future moves before you even make them.

So, who’s next to evolve? And who’s the next forgotten red postbox in Denmark?

Your move, businesses.

References

The Guardian. (2025). Danish postal service to stop delivering letters as numbers drop. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/danish-postal-service-stop-delivering-letters-drop-numbers [Accessed 14 Mar. 2025].

ScienceDirect. (2025). Stability in Turbulent Times? The Effect of Digitalisation on Competitive Advantage. Available at: https://pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/271680/1-s2.0-S0148296321X00033/1-s2.0-S0148296321000850/main.pdf [Accessed 14 Mar. 2025].

InPost. (2023). InPost 101 Presentation: From a Start-Up to Europe’s Leading APM Provider. Available at: [User-Uploaded Document] [Accessed 14 Mar. 2025].