Parcel shipping generated $279 billion in global sales last year, up 11% over 2016, according to the annual Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index. It forecasts that global shipping volumes will surpass 100 billion parcels by 2020.
Parcel volumes globally rose 17% last year to 74.4 billion parcels, up from 63.6 billion in 2016. This equates to an average of 22 parcels shipped per person globally, and 2,300 parcels shipped every second.
The biggest volume growth came from China which reported a 28% year on year rise.
The index reviewed 13 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States.
The biggest markets for parcel shipping volume in 2017 were China (40.1 billion), the United States (11.9 billion), and Japan (9.6 billion). However the highest parcel revenue was in the US which generated $107 billion, 38% of the total revenue of the 13 countries. However costs are higher in the US with the average shipping price of a parcel in the US being $8.95 compared to $1.83 in China and $2.64 in Japan.
Japanese customers were the most avid shoppers though with 76 parcels shipped per person in 2017. The UK follows at 48 parcels shipped per person, and then Germany at 41 parcels.
The UK shipped a total of 3.2 billion parcels in 2017, growing 8% YOY, which represented 48 parcels shipped per person.
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