La Poste wants to launch a “digital stamp” by early 2023: how does it work?

Like a letter to La Poste? Almost. The famous lick on the stamp, finally glued askew, has cause for concern: La Poste will market a “digital stamp” next year, the boss of the Consumer and Digital branch of the group announced on Tuesday, Nathalie Collins.

So make way, in the months to come, for an “alphanumeric” code: a series of eight capital letters mixed with numbers, which you just have to copy by hand, carefully, exactly in place of the classic stamp, at the top right side of the envelope or postcard.

This unique code is to be purchased – at the price of a green stamp, i.e. 1.16 euros – on the company’s mobile application, via a smartphone. A team of about ten researchers devoted themselves to this innovation and in particular to the development of a “complex” algorithm which makes it possible to reduce the number of frauds. For the rest, nothing changes: for mail weighing less than 20 grams, at the green letter rate, it will arrive at its destination two days later.

Smart sorting cameras, already capable of reading addresses, are now programmed to decipher these new codes. An exclusive innovation ensures La Poste, which has to deal with a fall in the volume of mail, divided by three in fifteen years.

Let philatelists be reassured: the paper stamp is not disappearing. The technique, already used in Switzerland, must be validated by the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (Arcep), for expected marketing “probably early 2023”, according to the company.