German e-commerce association wants more letterbox deliveries

Bevh, the German association of ecommerce and mail order, wants to have more online orders delivered to home letterboxes. It will work closer together with VDBF, the association of the German envelope industry, to make this happen.

The two German associations wants to tackle the current challenges that exist with delivering goods, as parcel services are sometimes heavily overburdened, the Bevh writes. Both Bevh and VDBF think that goods ordered online with low weight and suitable size should be packed in such a way that they fit in the customer’s domestic mailboxes and via the letter services. A positive side effect of this plan is that it provides guaranteed next-day delivery, even if the customer isn’t at home.

40% of ecommerce goods could be delivered to mailbox

A study commissioned by the International Post Corporation has shown that, due to its size and weight, about 40 percent of all products ordered online could be delivered to the domestic mailbox. However, the current delivery rate in Germany is still well below 20 percent, as even small orders are often sent in packages that are way larger than they should be.

Current solutions don’t work properly

“The common envelope is very popular in the ecommerce”, Martin Groß-Albenhausen, deputy managing director of Bevh, says. “But in detail, the dimensions of the deliveries often don’t harmonize with the standardized letterbox openings. We want to approach both the industry and the property sector in order to be able to deliver more ecommerce goods to consumers through postal service providers.”

VDBF’s member companies already offer several mailbox-compatible packaging solutions, but they’ve found little acceptance from online retailers so far.

Source: https://ecommercenews.eu/german-ecommerce-association-wants-more-letterbox-deliveries/