Second Christmas: During quarantine orders from e-shops rose by 105%, reports PPL

In general the state of emergency caused by coronavirus meant an increase of transported parcels by 105% for PPL. The volume of deliveries from the internet had already risen before the outbreak of the epidemic. In 2019 every Czech had an average of 10 deliveries sent/ordered from e-shops, even orders from foreign e-shops are no longer an exception. 64% of Czechs who shop on the internet had at least one delivery sent from these stores in the past year.

The survey conducted by Nielsen Admosphere at the start of the year confirmed that online shopping among Czechs is becoming more common and continues to rise. “When we started 25 years ago in our market, just like others we specialised only in making B2B deliveries. However with the onset of the internet things changed. Currently deliveries from e-shops to private individuals account for 60% of our business,” confirmed Petr Horák, Managing Director of PPL CZ s.r.o. According to him, the boom can be seen above all in fashion goods, pet food and food.

On average Czechs had 10 deliveries made from e-shops last year. But the general rule is that the younger the respondent, the greater the number of parcels ordered. People under 34 years of age received an average of 17 parcels. However, the difference between sexes is negligible. There is also no significant difference in the number of ordered goods among people living in towns and villages.

For whom and where do we shop

The survey also showed that 68% of respondents shops most often online for themselves. People also think of their children and partners. While women above all order goods for children, men more often think of their partners. General globalisation means a boom in shopping from foreign e-shops. The survey showed that almost a quarter of Czechs who shop online, placed more than six times more orders last year from abroad.

There is also a flow of goods from this country abroad. “In recent years we delivered more deliveries for local companies abroad, above all within the EU. Most parcels go to Slovakia, Germany and other neighbouring countries,” confirmed Petr Horák. “Our contracted parcel carriers under the auspices of DPDHL cover the last miles in the target destinations,” he adds.

 

Parcels during coronavirus

The common standard of Czech delivery companies is the option of picking up parcels at special pick-up points. PPL has more than 1,900 of these points in the Czech Republic. But these also had to adapt to the general closure of shops during the coronavirus crisis. Up to a quarter of PPL Parcelshops remained closed during the state of emergency. “Given that at the time of the quarantine recipients stayed at home, this was no great complication. Throughout this time we were able to cover all places in the country,” added Horák.

But in general during the quarantine, online shopping continued to grow. At the time when part of the retail network was closed, orders from e-shops delivered by PPL rose by 105%. E-shops selling hygiene products and disinfectants rose in particular. _Not just drivers, but all operations, including customer services saw a “second Christmas” in a short time. Unlike capacity at this time last year, we had to deploy a quarter more drivers in April and generally increase our workforce by 150 agency workers at depots and the central transshipment point. Then in May this extra capacity decreased by a half and now we are beginning to return to normal,” described Petr Horák.

The changes were also confirmed by another survey conducted by Nielsen Admosphere for PPL in April. It showed that 47% of people shopped online for goods during the state of emergency which they would normally purchase offline. Even after the opening of shops, 74% of then plan in future to offer a combination of shopping in store and online through e-shops.

Delivery services in five years

But as Petr Horák points out, as regards the workforce and distribution capacity, the parcel market is already reaching its limits. “The way that the e-commerce market is developing means that in future personal delivery will become a premium service. But next working day delivery will remain more or less the standard among consumers and customers. So that we can meet the market demand, transport and delivery must adapt to the new “contactless” standard. Pick-up and dispatch points, including the automated – PPL Parcelboxes will dominate over the five-year horizon. Thanks to them, we will eliminate the current time barrier which we come up against in personal parcel pickup, and we will be opening our services to an even wider population of customers and consumers. Likewise for our drivers, the pickup and receipt of parcels will be simpler and more flexible,“ he indicated the expected trend.

“By 2025 we plan to create 5,000 automatic pickup points. Currently the market is generally reaching the limit of usability by businesses as parties for the delivery of parcels to recipients from carriers. We see the solution in automation and robotisation,” he added.

So companies are becoming more aware of their social responsibility to the environment. And PPL is following this trend and apart from the elimination of paper in its processes, it is getting ready to implement alternative drive vehicles, electric charging and other eco-friendly solutions.