Further evidence of the rapid growth of e-commerce in recent months is DPD’s investment in additional automated parcel lockers in its Baltic markets. The company plans to more than double the number of Pickup lockers in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to a total of 641, by 2021. It has allocated €7.3m (US$8.2m) to the expansion, making it DPD’s biggest investment in infrastructure in the company’s 21-year history.
“As the number of people buying at e-shops rises, their need to pick up parcels at parcel lockers is also growing,” explained Robertas Vilkaitis, CEO of DPD in the Baltics. “DPDgroup e-shopper barometer 2019 – a survey of EU residents conducted on behalf of DPDgroup last year – revealed 55% of Lithuanian residents choose delivery to automated parcel lockers, whereas the European average is 13%. This trend shows us the direction we should go in expanding our services – and that is precisely why we decided in favor of a record expansion of the Pickup stations network in the Baltic countries.”
Lithuania will see the greatest growth in locker availability, nearly tripling to reach 235 in mid-2021, greatly increasing the proportion of the country’s population with access to the facilities, particularly in rural areas.
“Parcel delivery by courier remains popular, presently accounting for over 70% of all parcel deliveries, with more than 500 couriers occupied in that every day. Still, for several years now we’ve been seeing stable growth of e-commerce and both business and private customers evermore often using the parcel pickup service, which is not just cheaper and more convenient, but also ecological,” Vilkaitis noted.