Strong growth in cross-border e-shopping, the increasing importance of m-commerce and the great satisfaction of e-shoppers with online shopping are Europe’s most important trends in online shopping. Consumers who shop online demand greater transaction security and want to know about the parcel service provider when ordering.
These are the results of a survey conducted by the survey institute Kantar TNS on behalf of DPDgroup. In June and July 2018, more than 24,000 online shoppers in 21 European countries and Russia were interviewed – including 1,003 people in Austria.
According to the survey, Austrians make 12.5 per cent of their total purchases online, which is above the European average (11.5 per cent). This means that parcel service providers are playing an increasingly important role. The company describes itself as the fastest growing B2C provider in Europe.
In 2018, DPD transported 50.5 million parcels in Austria, or 4 per cent more than in the previous year, Mag. Rainer Schwarz Managing Director of DPD Austria, says in the course of the presentation of the e-shopper study, and is pleased about this “nice figure” . As for the throughput of this volume, peaks with around 200,000 parcels a day had to be handled time and time again. The peak season stretched from the last quarter of the previous year to January / February 2019.
Last year, DPD Austria invested around EUR 35 million into the expansion of the network. This will be followed by another EUR 10 million for the expansion of the depots this year as well as the improvement of technology for both the recipient and the driver. The extended DPD platform should allow to save preferences of the recipient with respect to the delivery location and thus make delivery easier.
A new generation of scanners with large displays is expected to be used later this year to make work easier. This should help to make the job more attractive in view of the shortage of staff, explains Rainer Schwarz to the Österreichische Verkehrszeitung.
