The launch of a ‘harmonised’ parcel label designed to make cross-border e-commerce in Europe “faster, better and cheaper" has taken a further step forward with the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) recently approving technical specifications after four months of discussions.
In a statement, Ecommerce Europe, which represents over 25,000 online shops across Europe, said that it was “proud to have chaired the work within the CEN to harmonize postal and supply chain management standards to enable one item label for the delivery of merchandise to end customers.”
The parcel label would be based on the GS1-128 barcode and would include diverse data, such as the parcel contents and delivery timings.
Commenting on the CEN's approval, Walter Trezek, co-chair of Ecommerce Europe's e-logistics working group and who chaired the work on the standardized label in the past months, said in the statement:
"This is a major step forward to really innovate cross-border parcel delivery services in Europe.
One of the main causes of difficulties in parcel delivery was closed standards leading to proprietary networks, resulting in unfavorable market conditions for online merchants.
“The vote on the Technical Specification achieved an approval rate of 93.75% of all members in the CEN, representing 83.6% of Europe’s population. Ecommerce Europe is honoured to have been in the driving seat to create solid open standards that will transform the old analog parcel into a digital and interconnected one.”
The statement underlined that by facilitating the work under a mandate of the European Commission, to specify harmonized Interfaces for cross-border parcels in Europe, Ecommerce Europe had achieved a consensus involving all players in parcel delivery.
“It is the first time that closed networks and open specifications can be supported on one parcel label.”
The statement added: “For Ecommerce Europe, the approval of CEN members of the Technical Specification is a clear statement that the strategy of the European e-commerce association to actively engage in shaping necessary market fundamentals through side regulation was right. Ecommerce Europe will engage itself in further activities to actively overcome hurdles linked to cross-border e-Logistics in the very near future.”
Ecommerce Europe added that it is currently revising its Manifesto for a better parcel delivery market in Europe, published in September 2016, to take into account both the recent vote on the Standardized Label and the developments on the Proposal for a Regulation on cross-border parcel delivery services.
Signed by industry-leading retailers, several SMEs, and Ecommerce Europe’s national associations. This ‘Ecommerce Europe Manifesto for Better Parcel Delivery’ called for a global level playing field among delivery service providers, more negotiating power for merchants on prices, and open IT standards for labelling, interfaces and databases.
Speaking to CEP-Research in December last year, Ecommerce Europe's Trezek, said it was important to see other issues, closely related to ross-border parcels interface specifications, approved by the CEN committee responsible for defining European standards for postal services.
These include:
-Requirements for electronic advanced data (EDA) in postal operations, in particular compliant to security and customs requirements
-Requirements to connect, access, participate and further develop open global networks and systems, for postal operators and the wider postal sector players
-Digital optional online connected, opening and closing systems for parcels receptacles for home use with free access for the delivery and collections operations and consumers
Returning to the issue of a harmonised parcel label for cross-border parcels in Europe, this had been the subject of a special ‘standardisation’ workshop at the Deliver One conference in Luxembourg in September 2016, attended by e-retailers, parcel carriers and industry stakeholders.
Participants said that some of the benefits from such a common label would include better interoperability between postal and parcel carriers, and simpler shipping for retailers.
