During the upcoming end-of-year period, 9% more parcels will be delivered in Europe than a year earlier. The growth is the result of increasing e-commerce, as well as shipments between companies.
Peak period
Parcel carriers will collectively deliver 6.2 billion shipments across Europe between October and December 2024, 9% more than in the same period in 2023. In the BeLux region, this will involve 109 million parcels, 7.6% more than in 2023. In the Netherlands, over 226 million shipments are expected, up 7.7%.
The growth is mainly due to an increase in e-commerce. In Belgium and Luxembourg, 78.5% (86 million parcels) of shipments go directly to consumers, while in the Netherlands it is 73% (166 million). With events like Black Friday and the run-up to the holidays, this is a true peak period for e-commerce. The last three months of the year are sometimes called the ‘golden quarter’: they account for 30% of total European volume, seven percentage points higher than the average for the three other quarters.
