Courier services working feverishly to ensure smooth delivery of online shopping orders

Online shopping is on a constant upward trajectory, gaining consumer trust and skyrocketing the courier sector’s volume of work.

The Black Friday period and the days leading up to the holidays are traditionally the busiest periods, as the volume of orders and the need for parcel deliveries are at their peak.

However, courier services appear to have adapted to the new conditions that have prevailed in the market over the last four-five years following the pandemic.

Essentially, although online shopping is gaining more and more ground and the volume of business has significantly increased, the situation regarding deliveries is under control.

In statements to InBusinessNews, ACS General Manager Christoforos Potamitis stated that, as every year, the volume of orders during this period is at high levels, with the number of package/parcel deliveries recording a 26% increase compared to the corresponding period last year.

The increased work for courier companies is mainly attributed to the shift of Cypriot consumers to online shopping, ordering either from abroad or from the local market, as a number of consumers have changed the way they shop over the last four years, moving away to some extent from the traditional visit to the physical store and demonstrating a vote of confidence in online stores.

"For reasons of convenience, but also variety of products, consumers choose online shopping, with the pie being equally divided between online orders from Cyprus and abroad," stressed Potamitis, noting that conditions regarding deliveries has normalised, despite the increased orders.

Pressure on deliveries after Black Friday, delays of a few days

Although the first week of December, that is, the week following Black Friday, tested the strength of couriers, the previous week went more smoothly, with deliveries proceeding normally, despite minor delays of two-three days.

In order to respond to the increased volume of orders and with the aim of serving the public, ACS has proceeded to diversify its operating hours for December, as certain points in Nicosia, Limassol and Paphos will operate during the weekend.

This concerns the store on Athalassas Avenue in Nicosia and on Mesogis Avenue in Paphos, while at the same time a temporary store (Christmas delivery point) will operate, at least until Epiphany (Monday, 6 January which is a public holiday), in Ayios Athanasios, in Limassol.

Interest from foreign online shops

Asked whether online shopping has reached its peak in the Cypriot market, Christoforos Potamitis stressed that there is still ground to cover with increased interest from online shops that wish to make their products available to Cypriot consumers.

"Starting in the new year, we will examine requests from foreign online stores, which were frozen in November and until the end of 2024, as we did not want to burden couriers with a larger volume, cause delays in deliveries and not be able to effectively serve our customers," he noted.

Physical and online stores coexist

In addition to the steady momentum of China due to the particularly popular websites (Temu, Shein and Ali Express) from which Cypriots shop en masse, a large volume of orders also comes from European e-shops (Asos, Best Secret), as well as from Amazon.

As the CEO of ACS pointed out, the shipping pie is now shared between orders from Cyprus and abroad, clarifying, however, that companies with physical and online stores in the Cypriot market are preferred by buyers.

"The contribution of a physical store to an online store is two-way, as the companies' physical stores gain visibility and traffic through the online shop and vice versa," he noted, explaining that consumers who trust a company's traditional stores will also trust its online stores.

(Source: InBusinessNews)