Parcel Locker Stations: The Future of e-Commerce Delivery?

Parcel lockers present an alternative delivery option to the traditional delivery methods, i.e. home delivery or postal outlets / parcel shops, and have gained popularity in recent years largely due to growing e-commerce, especially during Covid-19 times. Nevertheless, the development and implementation of parcel locker networks vary considerably across European countries. In some countries, such as the Nordics, Baltics, and Poland, there are large and dense networks of parcel locker stations and it is widely accepted as a preferred delivery method. In Germany, there is a large network of parcel locker stations in terms of numbers, but it lacks density compared to the aforementioned countries, and home delivery remains by far the most preferred delivery method. This paper explores the potential reasons for this variety and discusses the role of parcel locker stations in e-commerce delivery. It aims to identify challenges and key drivers for the development of parcel locker (APM) networks based on case studies for a selection of countries and analyses typical business models. It discusses the economic reasons for the dominance of exclusively operated APM networks and provides an in-depth economic analysis on the operation of parcel locker networks.