Global shipping volumes: $279 billion revenue in 2017

The Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index revealed that parcel shipping generates 279 billion dollars revenue in 2017. Turnover increased with 11% over 2016, while parcel volumes grew 17%, to 74.4 billion parcels in total. The biggest year-on-year growth in parcel volume can be found in China (28%). Globally, on average 22 parcels were shipped per person while a total of 2300 parcels was shipped around the world every second.

“China continues to have the greatest impact on the growing shipping market,” said Lila Snyder, President, Commerce Services at Pitney Bowes. “Globally, e-commerce continues to drive growth in all regions. Global e-commerce giants continue to raise the bar, resetting customer expectations when it comes to shipping. As retailers and marketplaces look to cross-border commerce to drive growth, carriers must create efficient, seamless routes to market.” What can be seen is that China’s Parcel Volume triples the United States’: China (40.1 billion), the United States (11.9 billion). Japan (9.6 billion) completes the top three countries for parcel shipping volume in 2017. China’s parcel shipments represent 53% of the total shipments in the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index.

The United States ranks highest in parcel shipping revenue at $107 billion, generating 38 percent of the total revenue of the 13 countries. China ($73 billion) and Japan ($25 billion) follow.

Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index also predicted that global shipping volume will surpass 100 billion parcels in 2020 in aggregate across the 13 countries reviewed: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the USA.