Logistics

Consumers in the Netherlands have the dubious honor to be the ones that send most online purchases back. Again. In the Netherlands, there's a return rate of 13 percent, which is more than in countries such as Germany, Poland and Switzerland.

Sorted, a delivery software startup from the United Kingdom, has reached a nice milestone. The value of goods it has shipped to date has reached the 1 billion pounds mark. All in all, it was a great year for the startup, which saw its client base increase by 200 percent.

Over one million parcels have been delivered through the nationwide Pakettipiste network of Lehtipiste Oy, a Finnish distribution and marketing company for newspapers and magazines. The parcel locker network currently has around 300 active locations across Finland.

Fashion brand Chiquelle is moving its warehouse operations. Currently these are located in Arlandastad, outside Stockholm, but after the Christmas holidays, the Swedish company will move its warehouse to the Netherlands.

Same-day-delivery is an increasingly popular method of delivery for online orders. But such a service costs money, of course. In Sweden, it seems that four in ten consumers don't want to pay a thing for same-day-delivery.

Russian Post and China Post have agreed on the joint development of the cPacket logistics service. With this service, the two postal operators want to control the flow of small traceable packages that will be exchanged between Russia and China.

Consumers in Germany will order products online with a total value of 70 billion euros this year. But every sixth parcel will be returned. In order to contain this process a bit, a legally required return fee could help, economic researchers say.

An Post has opened its new Dublin Parcel Hub, a 15 million euros investment in automated parcel processing. The logistics center is 50,000 square meters big and should significantly increase An Post's parcel processing capacity.

Amazon is testing its Amazon Day service in Germany. With this service, Prime members can have their orders bundled and shipped on a day of their choice. Amazon Day is meant to save packaging material and countless trips from the courier and to prevent multiple delivery attempts.

Alibaba will boost its partnership with Europe's biggest department store group El Corte Inglés, by offering click & collect for AliExpress customers. In early 2020, they will be able to pick up their orders at El Corte Inglés stores.

Two years ago, Zalando introduced its premium service called Zalando Plus. It would offer express delivery within the same day or one or two business days, collection of returns and a seperat hotline for faster customer service. Now, the fashion giant will no longer pick up returns of Plus members at their homes.

PostNord and Swipbox have started with the rollout of an extra 2,000 parcel lockers across Denmark. Over the next six months, the Nærboks lockers will be installed, after which Danish consumers can pick up their parcels 24/7.

Tomorrow, Posti will open a new premises in Helsinki, which is focused on ecommerce for its consumer customers and online retailers. The initiative, called Box, is equipped with fitting rooms, a big parcel locker and a digital kiosk.

Most of the top fashion retailers in the United Kingdom fail to offer a post-checkout experience to its customers. For example, they don't send tailored delivery messages and thus miss out on a upsell opportunity.

Global parcel volume reached 87 billion last year, with 9.3 billion parcel shipments being generated by European countries. The United Kingdom and Germany are the countries with the biggest parcel volume, in both markets 3.5 billion parcels were shipped last year.