European courier, express and parcels market - statistics & facts

Emergence of the courier, express and parcel (CEP) market and its evolution

Since early human civilizations, humans needed to transport items from one location to another. Growth in economic performance and industrial specialization induced larger transportation routes to get established. Better use of technology with advancements in science allowed us to transport to more locations much faster with less effort. The logistics industry connects the economic world and this connection evolves in response to the changing needs in the market. The emergence of the courier, express and parcel (CEP) market is an example of evolution in the logistics industry. The changing customer needs and dynamics of the global economy urged the logistics market to respond with changes to create new opportunities. One of the market needs was the demand for a quicker, better and safer way to transport both industrial goods to facilitate industrial production and consumer goods to satisfy the burning desires of customers across the globe. In simple terms, the CEP market provides traditional postal services faster and more reliable.

Market size of CEP services

While annual revenue generated through letter-post services declined since 2007 worldwide, the share of the annual revenue of parcels and logistics in postal services increase steadily. Although express delivery makes a small part of the total delivery volume, revenue generated through express delivery makes proportionally a larger part of the total revenue of firms in the postal services industry. In 2019, the domestic parcel traffic in Europe reached roughly 6.5 billion parcels handled, up from approximately 4.2 billion parcels in 2012. This is the volume of parcel items handled by all operators across Europe and comprises CEP services. In only six years, turnover generated from the provision of domestic parcel services in Europe increased almost four-fold, reaching roughly 38.8 billion euros in 2019.

Outlook of the CEP market

The continuous growth of global parcel shipping volume is expected to resume until 2026, reaching approximately 262 billion parcels. If this volume will be realized, then the shipping volume will increase almost by seven folds in only 13 years. In Europe, it is estimated that the express and small parcels market will reach over 77 billion euros of expected revenue in 2020. Some markets are much more progressive in cross-country comparison. In 2019, the German CEP market was the largest in Europe, handling almost three billion parcels. This volume of parcel handling made the German CEP market five times larger than the second-largest one, namely the Italian CEP market.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Jan 10, 2024

Key insights

Parcel shipping revenue worldwide
485bn USD
International parcel services traffic in Europe
2.7bn
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Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Global parcel shipping volume between 2013 and 2027 (in billion parcels)*

CEP (Courier, Express and Parcel)

Parcel shipping volume worldwide 2013-2027

Global parcel shipping volume in 2022, by selected country (in million parcels)*

CEP (Courier, Express and Parcel)

Parcel shipping volume worldwide by country 2022

Deutsche Post DHL Group's revenue in 2022, by region (in million euros)*

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Deutsche Post DHL Group - revenue by region 2022

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Courier, Express and Parcel (CEP) market in Europe
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Parcel market in Germany
Parcel market in Germany

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