As highlighted by the latest edition of Geopost’s E-shopper barometer , consumers are increasingly turning to Out-of-Home delivery for flexibility and affordability reasons. 51% of regular e-shoppers usually use more than one delivery place, while 44% prefer Out-of-Home delivery options (vs 39% in 2022); locker and parcel shop deliveries have seen a steady increase and now account for 23% and 24% respectively of the usual delivery locations, up by 3 and 4 points on last year.
Simultaneously, shippers’ demand for Out-of-Home solutions is rapidly growing, via traditional online marketplaces or other market segments like C2C and returns flows. With almost 3 out of 4 European regular e-shoppers conducting online shopping amongst themselves an increase of C2C deliveries can be expected in coming years, highlighting the necessity for solid Out-of-Home capabilities.
Geopost and its commercial brands DPD, Chronopost, BRT, SEUR and Speedy have significantly strengthened their presence in the last few years on this fast-growing market, relying on Geopost’s operating network: Pickup. With a 25% growth of parcels delivered Out-of-Home in 2023 vs 2022, Geopost showed a robust activity in this field. These figures have notably been driven by international flows from exporting shippers: in 2023, Geopost cross-border Out-of-Home deliveries grew by 43% versus 2022, and the trend continues in Q1 2024, with a further 75% increase of those volumes.
Alberto Navarro, EVP and COO Europe of Geopost, said:
” Out-of-Home is one of the key pillars of Geopost’s business strategy for tomorrow. While the trends towards Out-of-Home delivery are more than confirmed, we are proud to have been one of the major and pioneering players in this field, reaching more than 100,000 Pickup points. Going forward, we will continue to support our customers in their development needs and expectations by further investing in our Out-of-Home delivery network and services across Europe while strengthening our teams’ expertise.”
Among the densest network with 110,000 Pickup points throughout Europe
Out-of-Home delivery is a key pillar of Geopost’s “Together & Beyond” strategic roadmap launched in 2021.
Putting customer centricity at the core of its activity, Geopost offers both home and out-of-home deliveries across Europe, to meet all types of needs expressed by consumers. When it comes to Out-of-Home, Geopost capitalizes on its market knowledge to determine the right mix of parcel shops and lockers based on local cultural preferences and urban/rural landscapes. It enables the company, through its various subsidiaries all over Europe, to provide its customers with a large panel of solutions that best fit their needs: whether the parcel needs to be delivered to a locker, to a parcel shop, to a neighbour or even at work.
As of end of April 2024, Geopost’s network encompasses 110,000 Pickup points in Europe, one of the densest and most extensive Out-of-Home network on the market. In many European countries, Geopost is one of the largest Out-Of-Home players, including in France (19,000 Pickup points), Spain (6,000 points), Italy (8,800 points with Fermopoint), Germany (8,000 Pickup points), UK (11,000 Pickup points) and Scandinavia (11,000 points thanks to Geopost’s strategic partnership with the PostNord group). As lockers are also growing fast in Europe, Geopost is accelerating its locker strategy and offers now almost 23,000 lockers (11,000 more than by the end of 2022). The share of lockers will continue to grow in the coming years.
Thanks to its pan-European expertise and capabilities, Geopost supports the development of its customers with one of the most extensive Out-of-Home & Home delivery network, across 28 European countries .
Multi-service, solar powered: Pickup lockers offer optimum consumer experience and innovative infrastructure
Geopost places consumer expectations, specifically measured by its E-shopper barometer, at the heart of its innovation strategy. Among its latest innovations and developments, Pickup launched multi-service lockers last year, enabling consumers and retailers to notably exchange fresh produce, reserve lockers to leave items for third parties or drop-off parcels for return, as well as solar-powered lockers in the last month. Another innovation under development is the fitting room concept at parcel collection points. This concept is currently being rolled out in Germany, Croatia and Poland.
In 2023, 14% of regular e-shoppers returned their last purchase. To ease the process, diminish the barriers to online shopping and enhance consumer satisfaction, Geopost has developed a paperless label: with only a QR or PIN code on their mobile phone, consumers can drop off their parcel at the nearest parcel shop or locker, without having to print the label at home beforehand. This option is already available in 14 of Geopost subsidiaries and should be deployed all over the network progressively in 2024 and 2025.
