Sichuan Postal Branch has broken new ground and comprehensively promoted the operation mode of “outlets plus stations”. It has leveraged the advantages of channels such as ULE stations, postal and express stations, and cooperative merchants in the financial ecosystem to bring a steady source of business opportunities to postal service. As of the end of June, the branch has established 9,492 high-quality stations, with 4,265 stations participating in the two-way (outlets and stations) traffic attraction referral program. It has also established 13,000 postal and express stations, with 3,543 such stations joining the referral program. Additionally, it has attracted 11,000 cooperative merchants to its financial ecosystem, with 2,798 merchants involved in the program.

According to statistics, Sichuan Postal Branch is operating 2,419 postal outlets providing agency financial services, 1,951 of which are rural outlets, accounting for 80.65 percent. Due to the spread of online banking, the widespread use of electronic payment, and the aging of customers, the number of customers visiting physical outlets has kept declining. The proportion of over-the-counter transactions at the outlets has decreased from 50.19 percent in 2014 to 4.34 percent in 2022.

Sichuan Postal Branch has innovatively promoted regional operation to address the issue of who to be responsible for traffic attraction. They have planned 520 operating areas in 809 central towns within the province and assigned over 500 regional managers to create a new model for channel operation and management. Centering on system development and technological empowerment, they have independently developed a customer appointment system based on their self-built e-commerce platform and provincial financial customer management system. This system features customer information collection, outlet activity release, data statistics and analysis, and customer visit tracking. They have also developed a customer flow analysis system and piloted an “access control system” for the self pickup service of postal customers in Deyang Postal Branch, connecting “Easy Post” with the “access control system”.

In order to provide supporting measures and strengthen strategic guidance, Sichuan Postal Branch has integrated the “outlets plus stations” traffic attraction program into the selection of model county-level branches, incorporating high-quality multifunctional ULE stations featuring collection, delivery and self-pickup functions and the two-way traffic attraction of outlets and stations into the criteria for their performance appraisal. At the same time, they provide promotional materials for the stations to support their two-way traffic attraction activities.