Pick-Up Points: Sustainable, cost-effective, and accessible
“Sending orders directly to Pick-up Points can save up to €1 per shipment.”
Large number of Pick-up locations in Europe
There has been visible growth in Pick-up Points around Europe. There is already a 40% increase in Pick-up Points since 2019. We now see almost 350,000 Pick-up Points spread across 27 countries. There are 4 countries that clearly stand out:
- Germany – 57,000
- France – 45,000
- United Kingdom – 38,000
- Italy – 36,000
The Netherlands also scores well in terms of Pick-up locations. This small country already has more than 10,000 distributed all over the country.
Number of locations per 1000 inhabitants
We took a look at the number of Pick-up locations in 5 major European countries, plus the UK. The research was limited to 12 specific carriers that offer them. We then compared this number with the number of inhabitants of that country, in order to arrive at the number of Pick-up Points per 1000 inhabitants. The carriers that have been used can be found in the overview below.
Under Armour drives sustainability by sending 20% of deliveries to pick-up points.
Delivery shipped to pick-up locations are free, without a minimum order threshold. Under Armour has implemented dynamic and local delivery options in every country. Customers are now offered various delivery options, including pick-up points. This option not only reduces costs, but also CO2 emissions.
Encouraging sustainability in delivery
A more sustainable option within delivery is the use of pick-up points. Most service points are identified as a home address, which means that they form part of the regular round that the delivery person drives. The more packages that are delivered to the service point, the less often the delivery person has to stop at households. It has been calculated that if 50% of the parcels in a delivery round are delivered to collection points instead of to home addresses, there will be approximately 17% CO2 reduction in the total load-mile network. To make this option the most interesting, you can choose to always offer this option for free, and make it the pre-selected delivery option.
It is of course important that people walk or cycle to such a pick-up point, otherwise the CO2 benefit will lapse. Fortunately, 16 to 52 percent of households have at least one collection point or parcel safe within walking distance – depending on the carrier.
How do you actually use such a sustainable pick-up point?
Make it clear
Communicate on your site that pick-up points are available
Show location
Show all pick-up points on a visual map
Track & Trace
Keep your customers informed with notifications
Pre-select
Make (free) pick-up points the default delivery option
Cost-effective delivery option
Pick-up points are also very good for saving on delivery costs. Paazl has recently been able to save a customer up to €0,90 per shipment by implementing delivery service points. Since the delivery person does not have to drive around for as long, and can immediately delivery a large number of packages at one location, this reduces the costs. The chance that the delivery person will be faced with a closed door and nobody home doesn’t exist. The customer can then collect their package in their own time. This flexibility gives a feeling of freedom, and at the same time increases delivery hit-rate.
Pick-up points 2.0: Parcel lockers will play a greater role
When we talk about pick-up locations, we should certainly not forget about parcel lockers. These lockers are becoming increasingly popular and are incredibly efficient. The global size of the smart parcel locker market is expected to show significant growth in 2027. This growth is estimated at over 12%. Recently, our partner Budbee introduced their Budbee Box to the Netherlands, after being very successful in the nordics. There are now over 1000 Budbee Boxes available in the Benelux area. Plus, these are easy to activate with Paazl!
Conclusion: Bet on pick-up points!
Service points and parcel lockers are the solution for a sustainable and cost-effective last-mile delivery strategy. Delivery drivers have to drive around less, which saves costs and improves delivery hit-rates. This, in turn, ensures a reduction in CO2 emissions. In addition, you give the customer more freedom and flexibility, which will ensure better customer retention.
With Paazl you can easily display many delivery options in your checkout. Pick-up points can then also be selected with our Paazl Checkout Widget. Have you become enthusiastic about the use of pick-up locations, and are you curious about how Paazl can help your webshop to use them? We would like to get in touch with you to discuss the possibilities!
Paazl is a leading shipping service provider (SSP) for brands & retailers in e-commerce. Its all-in-one, multi-carrier platform unburdens the delivery process across webshop, warehouse, customer service and returns. Paazl enables logistical flexibility, consumer loyalty, cost transparency and (inter)national growth. Customers include industry leaders such as G-Star Raw, Rituals, VanMoof, Tag Heuer, Leenbakker and Under Armour.