While parcel shipping volume was 31 billion parcels in 2015, which was a 2.9% increase over 2014, the future looks even brighter. The Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index forecasts parcel shipping volume to grow at an annual rate of 5% to 7% through 2018, with cross border shipping leading the way.
The Index measured volume and spend for business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-business and consumer consigned shipments with weight up to 70 lbs. in 12 major markets, including the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Australia and India.
“With the growth we’ve witnessed over the last several years in ecommerce, it is no surprise the global parcel shipping market continues to expand at a strong pace,” said Lila Snyder, president, Global Ecommerce for Pitney Bowes. “That growth in parcel shipping is having a profound effect on businesses. Increased demand has led to greater service options from an expanding number of global, national and regional carriers. However, managing multiple carriers and shipping goods across borders also creates new challenges and raises complexity.”
The Index confirmed that the U.S. is the largest parcel shipping market of the countries studied with more than 11.8 billion parcels shipped and $85 billion spent in 2015.
Japan, Germany, UK and France round out the top five countries with parcel volumes of 9.4B, 3.0B, 2.2B, and 1.5B units respectively in 2015.
Globally, the parcel shipping market is being driven primarily by growth in ecommerce with an increasing number of online shoppers around the world. Of the countries in this Index, the U.S. has the largest retail ecommerce market followed by the UK, Japan, Germany, and France.
“The strong growth we are seeing in parcel shipping has led to increasing complexity for businesses of all sizes,” said Mark Shearer, president, Pitney Bowes Global SMB Solutions. “Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in particular are having trouble managing the growing number of shipping options, service levels and 24/7 tracking. New and improved technologies, including cross border and cloud-based multi-carrier office shipping platforms, can help businesses of all sizes optimize their parcel shipping operations to maximize efficiency and deliver the best possible customer experience.”
Here are the results of the index based on location.
North America
· In North America, parcel shipping volume grew 3.6% in 2015 to 11.8 billion in the U.S. and grew 1.6% to .55 billion in Canada in 2015.
· U.S. businesses spent more than $85 billion on parcel shipping in 2015, up 1.2% from 2014.
· Growth in the U.S. parcel market was primarily driven by more frequent consumer online shopping, increased office shipping, and growing global trade.
· Approximately 40%t of the U.S. parcel market is made up of office shipping1, which includes packages and flats shipped by businesses as part of their daily work flow.
Europe
· In Europe, Germany’s parcel market is the largest with more than 2.9 billion parcels shipped in 2015. Germany’s parcel market growth is primarily driven by B2C parcels propelled by strong demand in ecommerce. Parcel shipping spend in Germany rose by 6.4% to €12.7 billion in 2015.
· Parcel shipping volume and spend in the UK grew by 6% to 2.2 billion parcels and 10.1% to £8.9 billion.
· The parcel shipping market in France grew 4.7% in volume to 1.5 billion and 4% in spend to €9.7 billion.
Asia-Pacific
· In the Asia-Pacific region, parcel volume dipped by 1.7% in Japan, primarily due to an 8.8% decline in packets. Conversely, the parcel shipping spend in Japan increased by 2.6% to ¥2,480 billion.
· The Australia parcel shipping market grew by 8.8% in volume to .70 billion and 8.2% in spend at AU$9.6 billion.
· In India, parcel volume grew by 8.2% to .34 billion and spend increased 17.2% to ₹110.15 billion.
Latin America
· Brazil’s parcel market grew 13.9% to 0.57 billion parcels and spend grew 15.4% to R$10.27.
·This strong growth was primarily powered by the increase of internet retailing. Also of note was a growing trend in Brazil of buying products via mobile devices, which has further propelled B2C parcel delivery services.
