E-commerce half of UK parcel peak by 2016

   Internet retailers and other e-commerce services will generate half of the United Kingdom’s parcel volumes in the pre-Christmas peak within five years, according to Global Freight Solutions (GFS).
   The study by GFS, a U.K. parcel and carrier manager, found the number of packages sent by e-commerce firms during November and December last year increased 15 percent from 2010.
   Director Simon Veale said Web retailers accounted for 37 percent of the total volume of items handled by the country’s carriers during this period and their impact on the U.K. parcel industry is expected to increase.
   Veale said if the current rate of growth is maintained, consumer deliveries will account for half of the total packages shipped in the last two months of the year by 2016 and this will be the first time this traffic will have matched business parcel volumes during the period.
   This would be a major milestone and would also mean there is a shift coming in how parcel service providers must address both consumers and these e-retailers. E-retailers will also have to shift their approach to parcel delivery, which could include better trade management platforms and opening their businesses to more parcel companies.
   “A decade ago, consumers were responsible for approximately 10 percent of the Christmas parcel peak,” Veale said. “The increase that we’ve witnessed since has predominantly been caused by Internet shopping and much of that has come after 2006, when e-commerce began to really gain in popularity.
   “It shows no sign of slowing down. Instead, we believe that the more frequent use of smartphones and tablets to buy Christmas presents on-line will fuel further parcel growth and that, in turn, means home deliveries may well catch up with those destined for business customers by 2016.”
   While there was a clearly defined consumer parcel peak that lasted one week during these two months, GFS found that the volume resulting from e-commerce in November and December 2011 remained consistently high for a month, besting 4 million new parcels entering the UK delivery network every day, an increase of more than 3 percent.
   GFS projects this growth to reach 4.75 million new items entering the network daily during these months by December 2016. — Geoff Whiting