The French domestic express and parcels market is growing only moderately with e-commerce as themain growth driver, according to a report from the French postal regulator ARCEP. The liberalised
mail sector is growing faster than the large monopoly sector, it also revealed.The ARCEP annual report, based on a number of market surveys and external sources, providedfigures for 2005 in comparison to 2004.
The French domestic express segment, covering light parcels up to 30kg, grew by 4.7% torevenues of EUR 1.4 billion and just under 200 million items in 2005, the report stated. Referringto other previous surveys, ARCEP said that the total French express market segment, includinginternational shipments, had a value of EUR 3 billion in 2004.
In the parcels segment, covering single items weighing up to 30 kg, the domestic market grewby 2.6% to revenues of EUR 1.43 billion in 2005 while volumes rose by 2.8% to 355 million items,ARCEP said. The B2C segment was the largest part of the parcel market, but C2C volumes were likelyto grow as consumers sold more goods through e-commerce websites, it noted. Parcel shippinggenerated by online orders grew by 40% between December 2004 and December 2005, the regulator said.
The domestic mail (or “correspondence”) market, covering addressed items weighing up to 2 kg,grew by 3.8% to revenues of EUR 8,257 million while volumes declined 0.6% to 16,208 million pieces,ARCEP disclosed.
The monopoly (or “reserved”) area, covering mail weighing less than 100g, grew by 3.2% to EUR6.8 billion but volumes declined by 1.1% to 14.8 billion pieces. The difference is largelyexplained by a price rise. The competitive mail market was worth EUR 1.5 billion (+6.7%) and had1.4 billion pieces (+5.1%).
