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Pressemitteilung

The German parcels market in 2018: Growth, gadgets and bananas

Last year, volumes delivered by Germany's five major parcel companies came close to three billion parcels. Overall, volumes amounted to 2.95 billion, up 8.1 percent from the year before. As in the past years, this development was primarily carried by strong e-commerce growth: Particularly, the B2C segment – growing by 11.6 percent, saw a considerable upward trend and is now accounting 61 percent of total volumes.

At the same time, business parcels, for the first time, exceeded the one-billion mark with 1.02 billion shipments (+4%). Parcels posted by consumers to consumers (C2C), on the other hand, recorded a decline of three percent and are only accounting for about four percent of total volumes with 130 million parcels.

One of the most noteworthy developments were the shifts within the most dynamic segment – e-commerce parcels. For the first time, clothes (320m parcels, +8%) were replaced from their position as biggest commodity by consumer electronics and telecommunications with 330 million parcels (+20%). 'This clearly shows that the online market for fashion is increasingly saturated, while electronic gadgets like power banks or fitness trackers are in high demand'. 

The commodity 'car, motorbikes and accessories' also saw a high growth rate (48m parcels, +35%). While the no. one in the market, Amazon, primarily sold accessories like engine oil or wheel cleaners, the no. two, eBay, also sold huge amounts of hardware like tyres.

Yet public attention has been on food, as online ordered groceries are becoming increasingly popular and soared by 20 percent. Well-established grocery retailers like Rewe and newcomers like Picnic altogether posted 62 million shipments. Fruits like kiwis and bananas were put into the virtual shopping cart most often.

More info for journalists: Horst Manner-Romberg, MRU GmbH, Papenhuder Straße 49, 22087 Hamburg, phone: +49 40 2204000, manro@m-r-u.de

MRU GmbH, was founded in 1992 and focuses on the courier, express and postal market, comprises a team of experts with profound theoretical knowledge and comprehensive practical experience. Their main expertise is in the German-speaking and other European markets, where they are considered  neutral and independent experts.

Note for editors:

The distribution of the commodities within the B2C segment was, like in the years before, calculated based on an annual poll among 40,000 consumers carried out by the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Association (bevh).