There is an industry-wide trend among mailbox and shipping franchises to diversify away from their traditional core business of providing shipping, mailbox, and photocopy services to small business customers. The UPS Store, for one, has been heavily pushing its printing and direct mail services.

Another franchise that is venturing far beyond its traditional service mix is PostNet, which hopes to eventually become a one-stop business-solutions provider for small business owners.

In line with the company’s shift toward offering consultative services, PostNet Neighborhood Business centers now offer marketing services to better meet the design, printing, and shipping needs of their customers. Select locations in the U.S. and Canada also offer Web Services, such as website and mobile design, hosting, email marketing, and mobile printing.

More recently, PostNet has partnered with Franchise Payments Network (FPN), the only electronic payments processing company to focus solely on the franchise segment, to offer PostNet Mobile Payments for small-business customers.

PostNet Mobile Payments lets small businesses accept on-the-go payments from customers using Apple and most Android-powered mobile devices.

With lower swipe fees and more secure transactions than competitors, the FPN-powered PostNet Mobile Payments is ideal for businesses that deliver goods, service-oriented companies, as well as businesses that conduct transactions outside brick-and-mortar settings, such as at community events or trade shows.

The new mobile payment processing service is currently available at 18 PostNet locations.

It remains to be seen whether this new profit center gains any traction with customers. Although I doubt if this will be a huge revenue driver, it’s a reasonable attempt at finding ways to increase profits at the store level, without incurring significant additional costs.