The period from the sale week around Black Friday until Christmas is the most intense of the entire year for e-commerce – and thus for package suppliers. Just in the 24 hours between Sunday and Monday during Black week, Postnord handled almost 1.2 million parcels and consignment notes.
“E-commerce is not as strong as during the pandemic, but it is still strong and compared to the rest of the year, this period is very intense,” says Agnes Karlsson, production director at Postnord.
Locker to the rescue
In previous years, this has meant that consumers have had to count on slightly longer delivery times, but this year things look brighter. Among other things, Postnord has rolled out more so-called package boxes, independent cabinets with small doors where consumers can pick up their packages themselves using the company’s app.
— Last Christmas we had approximately 1,000 parcel boxes, now we have roughly 3,600 over large parts of Sweden. We have also increased the number of evening deliveries and Saturday distribution to several locations and we have more parcel agents, says Agnes Karlsson.
— We see this year that the quality is significantly better, there is less pressure on the agents and we feel good confidence that the Christmas presents will arrive on time.
Instabee, formerly the companies Instabox and Budbee which have now been merged, also have parcel boxes. According to the company, they have seen a large increase compared to last year.
“We have seen new records several days in connection with Black week and December is typically our strongest month. We are working hard to be well equipped to handle the incoming volumes, both in terms of sorting as delivery and customer service,” writes Ann Sonne , press communicator, in an email.
“Delays may occur”
To avoid delays, the company works actively to “shut down” the parcel lockers that are full at the e-tailers and instead redirect them to free lockers in other locations or for home delivery.
“When we receive such large volumes as during November–December, it is naturally difficult to handle everything with the same efficiency as normal, so some delays can occur. We then communicate this to both our consumers and directly to the traders concerned”, writes Ann Sonne.
DHL states, just like Postnord, that the amount of parcels is at roughly the same level as in recent years.
— We see a small decrease, but it is very small, says Mikael Stange, marketing and communications manager at DHL.
An important cog in the parcel machinery around Christmas is that consumers actually collect their parcels from agents. Otherwise, they will be piled up, which creates queues and delays, something that has happened before. But in connection with Christmas, DHL invests in sending out more reminders than usual, which seems to have paid off this year.
“There haven’t been any major problems there this year, but people seem good at picking up their parcels quickly,” says Mikael Stange.