Black Friday-Cyber Monday sales have generated parcel volume increases with some German carriers but there is no overall boom as the online sales events are still relatively new on the German e-commerce market while promotions and discounts are not only limited to the two days.
A DPD Germany spokesman told CEP-Research: “Overall, DPD’s growth is particularly strong during this year’s Christmas season, with parcel volumes continuously increasing as we approach the festive holiday. This Monday (Cyber Monday), for example, we recorded our strongest shipping day of the year in terms of parcel volumes which we were able to handle smoothly in operational terms without any delays.”
Talking specifically about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, he said: “E-commerce campaigns like Black Friday or Cyber Monday certainly contribute to the parcel volume growth and we recorded considerable volume peaks on these days for some customers. However, we noted that the importance of the two days tends to decrease because the discount offers are no longer limited to one or two days. Amazon, for example, offers promotions throughout the week.”
The spokesman confirmed that the company maintains its holiday forecast for 2015. For this year’s peak Christmas season, DPD is expecting a 15% rise in German parcel volumes. Volumes in the week before Christmas are predicted to be 50% higher than the average for the year. For the year as a whole, the company expects 10% growth.
A Deutsche Post DHL spokesman was satisfied with the results from Black Friday/Cyber Monday which could imply a parcel volume increase on those days. “The parcel volumes on these days have fulfilled our expectations. In terms of concrete growth rates, we cannot provide any figures,” he told CEP-Research.
Deutsche Post maintains its overall forecast for the Christmas period and expects to handle up to eight million parcels on the peak days before Christmas, which equals a 10% increase compared to last year. To cope with the volume increase, the postal operator hired 10,000 temporary workers, the spokesman confirmed.
A GLS Germany spokeswoman also told CEP-Research that the company registered a parcel volume increase on Black Friday compared to a normal Friday but didn’t give any figures.
“In the three months before Christmas, the GLS parcel volumes grow on average by 30%,” she said, confirming the company’s usual holiday forecast. “As every year, GLS has adapted to Christmas volume growth with extensive measures.” The company has increased its transport and sorting capacities in the busy pre-Christmas period with two new depots, seven additional delivery bases and 1,000 temporary workers.
A Hermes Germany spokeswoman stressed that Black Friday is originally an Anglo-American tradition. “For the German market, we didn’t notice any extraordinary volume increase for the days of Black Friday/Cyber Monday, with around 15% growth respectively.” This corresponds to the average volume growth the company expects for the Christmas period. Hermes expects around 36 million shipments to be sent across Germany during the pre-Christmas peak season.
UPS Germany was the only parcel operator declining to comment on its Black Friday/Cyber Monday business trends. The company’s spokesman told CEP-Research that UPS doesn’t publish or gives out any country-specific figures on this subject. He confirmed UPS’ earlier announcement that it expects to deliver more than 630 million packages between Black Friday and New Year’s Eve worldwide, an increase of more than 10% over holiday deliveries last year.
“Our employees know that at this time of the year all hands are needed. Everyone mucks in. Even employees who have otherwise nothing to do with the handling of packages: staff doing administration work help out in sortation and with loading and unloading. And they help delivering. Even our management helps delivering parcels, whether via the brown delivery vehicle or the company car. They mainly deliver time-critical express shipments to take off the pressure from the delivery staff on their delivery rounds and make sure that all parcels arrive on time,” he told CEP-Research.
