PostEurop: Growing confidence in EU e-commerce boosts delivery sector

PostEurop has welcomed a recent study by Copenhagen Economics which found that there is growing confidence in the dynamic EU e-commerce market, with a positive spill over into the European delivery sector. PostEurop, the association which represents European public postal operators, commissioned the report from Copenhagen Economics in order to feed into the debate on cross-border parcel delivery, which has been stirred up by the European Commission’s “Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe”.

While the report confirmed that the European e-commerce market is thriving, with both domestic and cross-border online shopping on the increase, it also showed that the price of parcel delivery is driven by a number of supply and demand factors, and the price online shoppers pay for cross-border parcel delivery does not reflect the prices charged by delivery operators.

PostEurop said that the report will help to “de-bunk myths around delivery prices”.

According to PostEurop: “E-retailers play an important role in the end-price online shoppers pay for cross-border parcel delivery. A mystery shopping exercise revealed that there is a low correlation between the prices charged by e-retailers to e-shoppers and the prices postal operators’ charge to e-retailers. E-retailers choose how to price the delivery service depending on e-shopper demands and the e-retailer’s general pricing strategy. For example, ‘free delivery’ is offered if the purchase exceeds a threshold.

“In the delivery sector, as in other sectors, the price charged is market driven. It is a commercial decision influenced by demand and supply factors such as consumers’ willingness to pay, volumes flows or the relative bargaining power of e-retailers. Digging into economic and operational conditions helps better understand price differences between domestic and cross-border delivery services as well as between individual countries.”