Parcel carriers should make home deliveries into a premium service and collaborate more in response to challenges such as rising cost pressures, flat B2B demand and changing B2C patterns, DPD Germany chief Karsten Schwarz urged in a frank presentation at the Leaders in Logistics Summit in Berlin last week.
On the positive side, the €645 billion European e-commerce market is expected to grow about 8% a year until 2029, driven by a continuous increase in user penetration, he told an audience of several hundred participants.
Drivers include the growth of C2C platforms, which are challenging traditional e-retailers “by eating into the B2C cake”, along with out-of-home deliveries, which could reach 25% of volumes in Germany by 2030, he said.
Another key growth factor is the current surge in direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales by Chinese e-commerce marketplaces. “We will see massive increases in DTC from China, whatever the quality (of the products) is,” he predicted.
Challenging times
