Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index highlights ongoing strong levels of global parcel volume growth

Due to a whole host of factors—including, most notably, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people staying at and working from home, among others—has led to a spate in e-commerce-based parcel shipping activity, which kicked off, in earnest, in March 2020, and has not subsequently abated since then.

That was a key takeaway from the new edition of the Parcel Shipping Index, which was recently released by Stamford, Ct.-based Pitney Bowes, a global technology services provider of commerce solutions powering billions of transactions.

The Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index measures parcel volume and spend for business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-business and consumer consigned shipments with weight up to 31.5kg (70 pounds) across Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. And it added that population data points were sourced from the International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database published in October 2018. The Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index spans 13 countries and represents the parcel shipping activity of 3.8 billion people, it also noted.

For calendar year 2020, the report said that global parcel volume came in at 131.2 billion, which translates into 4,160 parcels shipped per second, a 27% annual gain, with 34 parcels generated per person, in addition to parcel revenue—at $429.5 billion—rising 22% since 2019.

Other key data points cited by Pitney Bowes, include:

• parcel volume potentially coming in at 232 billion-to-303 billion by 2026, with the most likely outcome that parcel volume could double in the next five years, to 266 billion in 2026;
• the top three markets by revenue—mdash;United States, at $171.4 billion; China, at $127.5 billion, and Japan, at $33.3 billion, accounted for 77% of 2020 global parcel revenue;
• China led the pack, for parcel volume, at 83.4 billion, rising 31% over 63.5 billion in 2019, with the U.S. next, at 20.2 billion, and Japan, at 9.1 billion (Pitney Bowes said that based on its forecasts, China could be the first country to hit 100 billion parcels by volume in 2021;
• the U.S. stayed at the top, in terms of highest carrier revenue, at $171.4 billion, up 29% annually
• the highest CAGR (compound annual growth rate), for parcel revenue, from 2014-2020, was China, at 27%, followed by India, at 16%, and the U.S. and UK, each at 11%

In an interview, Jason Dies, EVP and President, Sending Technology Solutions, Pitney Bowes, told LM that e-commerce has become the standard for many consumers’ shopping habits, and while 2020 saw a major surge in volume, Pitney Bowes expects this trend to remain intact.

With China being the largest market by parcel volume and the U.S. leading the pack by revenue, Dies explained that this disparity is due to the fact that revenue per parcel is 5.5-times higher than in China, adding that the U.S. revenue per parcel was about $8.49 in 2020, whereas China’s was about $1.53.  

“There are multiple factors that influence this, including average transit distance, average package size & weight and share of the volume that is expedited,” said Dies. “An important consideration here is that costs are higher in the U.S. market than in China. One of the most significant factors is that the China parcel market is very fragmented. In China, the top six carriers only had about 62% revenue share in 2020, while in the US the top 3 carriers (UPS, FedEx and USPS) had about 88% of the revenue share in 2020. In China, there is strong price competition among carriers that is further affecting per parcel yield.”

When asked what his expectations are for the 2021 Peak Season, Dies noted it will be a unique one given the global supply chain challenges and Delta variant.

“It’s hard to predict this season given the clash of increased e-commerce habits and the shortage of goods,” he said, “Experts are pushing consumers to start holiday shopping earlier this year as it will undoubtedly be a challenge to meet demand.”