Consumers in the Nordics are buying more groceries online ever before due to Covid-19 pandemic shutdown restrictions, resulting in surging home delivery volumes for PostNord in Sweden, Posten Norge in Norway and Posti in Finland.
According to PostNord, more Swedes want their orders delivered to their homes, as more and more people are ordering grocery and pharmacy products online. Demand for home deliveries has increased between 35% and 50% but has risen only moderately for deliveries to postal agencies and other collection points.
Peter Hesslin, the company’s head of logistics and e-commerce, explained: “We are experiencing record numbers in home deliveries and to agents right now. It is clear that this is an effect of having to stay inside.”
PostNord currently delivers between 550,000 and 650,000 packages throughout Sweden per day, compared to having delivered around 450,000 packages during the same period in 2019.
Hesslin added: “PostNord is well equipped and able to handle increasing volumes, even under these special circumstances. The combination of know-how and dedication to our social mission enables us to continue to deliver throughout Sweden, even as we suffer from higher sickness absences.”
Under a grocery logistics outsourcing partnership with the Evanoff Group announced today, PostNord TPL (Third Party Logistics) is now providing warehouse handling at Jordbro, south of Stockholm, for the group’s subsidiary Paolo, along with distribution of its Italian-style food products such as olive oil, pasta and pesto to wholesalers and grocery stores.
Generally, however, overall Swedish B2C e-commerce sales are declining during the spread of Covid-19. Consumption decreased in most categories, except the grocery and pharmacy products sector, according to the postal operator’s latest e-barometer report.
Compared to 2019, when an average of 70% of the Swedish people were shopping online, the proportion of shoppers fell to 66% during the period from March 26 and April 6, 2020. As many as 21% of Swedish consumers state that because of corona, they have refrained from buying a specific product online, while 36% worry about their private finances.
Meanwhile, Posten Norge (Norway Post) said its postmen and postwomen are carrying out more mailbox deliveries of small packages than usual. Last week, there were twice as many mailbox deliveries compared to the same week last year. This comes after Norway Post introduced its “Parcel in the mailbox" service.
CEO Tone Wille explained: “As Norwegians want to have more and more goods delivered to their homes during a period where many do not want to visit stores, we have introduced our ‘Parcel in the mailbox’ service.”
The only requirement to use the simple solution is that the package must fit in the mailbox. The response to the service is explosive and on some days there has been an increase of 150%. This makes the service more popular than it has been in the peak season just before Christmas, although overall volumes are much higher during the holiday season.
In Finland, a Posti survey revealed that nearly 25% of Finns have increased their online shopping during the coronavirus crisis. The increase is steepest in the 18–34 age group, but there has been a clear increase amongst all age groups. Last week, Posti delivered more than one million parcels to its customers.
Arttu Hollmérus, Vice President Parcel and eCommerce at Posti, commented: “Over a short time span online shopping has become more important than ever, as people are staying at home but still want to shop for their daily needs.
“Based on our previous surveys, before, about half of the population bought products online once a month. Now, more and more people are buying products online every week.”
Viewed by product group, online shopping in Finland has increased in nearly all categories. The time spent at home and the isolation are particularly evident in the strong growth in the sales of food, medicine as well as different games, hobby products and books.
Posti quickly responded to the increased demand, as Jarmo Ainasoja, the company’s exceptional circumstances leader, explained: “We have increased the number of employees and deliveries as well as obtaining new parcel handling facilities to be able to provide our services as normally as possible.”
Ainasoja added: “Unfortunately, the surprisingly sharp rise in demand has resulted in regional delays for home parcels in the capital region. We apologize for the inconvenience. The additional resources we have now introduced should fix the issue by next week at the latest. The delay is due to the large volume of parcels.”
In total, however, for the time being, the situation has not materially affected Posti’s services – parcels are continuously sorted and delivered to pick up points and homes.
