Hello 2025! We thought we would begin the year by reflecting on the last, as 2024 was yet again another remarkable milestone for Parcelly. Join us as we walk through the highlights and key events that have shaped our journey over the past 12 months!
From market expansion, technological transformations and a decade of Parcelly, 2024 was a record-breaking year for a multitude of reasons. Most notably and after consistent quarterly double-digit volume growth, we launched into the 2024 parcel peak with weekly “Volume all-time-high" resets from calendar week 46!
We’ve seen a parcel Pick-Up and Drop-Off (PUDO) increase of 39.2% year-over-year (YoY) in the highest-performing month, December 2024. Our total volume, for both PUDO and Warehousing, is up 27.7% YoY, with our PUDO volume up 68.1% YoY. Our transactional part of the business revenue is now 76.6%, with the licensing part generating 23.3%.
The Parcelly Network has also increased by 18.2% to more than 4571 stores in over 234 cities (all 3 markets combined). We’ve also seen a 60.2% increase in store leads that can be activated following the volume demand of one of our clients, to over 9.4K in the UK alone.
We also should not forget the 5000 coffees consumed in our London HQ, the 200 balloons inflated as part of our 10th Anniversary celebration and more than 360 Krispy Kreme doughnuts consumed at our HQ across the year. Not to mention the over two and a half million doughnuts processed through our Parcelly Dark Stores via Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats in 2024.
1. Network Operation and Expansion
2024 marked a major milestone in the expansion of Parcelly’s European footprint. We are proud to have successfully entered and grown our German and Irish markets, in addition to continuing our strong growth in the UK.
We have now built a network of over 4.5K location partners, a >18% increase YoY. This growth across multiple European regions positions us to better serve the increasing demand for convenient parcel pick-up and drop-off services, especially in urban areas.
- Our total network has also further improved its operational efficiency and quality, averaging a 98% compliance rate, outperforming the UK market average.
2. Tech and Platform Advancements
Over the past 12 months, we have taken our technology platform to a whole new level. With monthly iOS app version updates and UX improvements, we have reduced the average parcel processing speeds to less than 3 seconds per item. Additionally, due to our market expansion, we have deployed our app in German, marking another app iteration after our MENA and USA projects.
From a UX perspective, we have further improved automation-driven parcel processing based on our OCR technology, reducing simultaneously the number of manual support interventions by >40% per parcel. A major step forward in developing our platform capabilities, bringing the Parcelly system closer to sensing, reasoning, acting, and adapting to parcel processes in a way that mimics human interaction.
We have also reduced our manual customer service tasks through automation enhancements that have resulted in an automation level of 91% (post-scan) across all items processed through the platform. With more innovation and feature improvements scheduled for 2025, we are truly excited to execute our packed technical pipeline.
3. New Partnerships
2024 also saw us build and strengthen our strategic partnerships with existing and new carrier and retail partners. For example, our partnership with Centra, Ireland’s leading convenience retail group to build our footprint in the Republic of Ireland. An exciting partnership with the “leading convenience retail group, with 480 bright, accessible stores in communities throughout the country”, as we are now deploying the first 30 stores across the regions of Connacht, Leinster and Munster.
Throughout the year, we attended and exhibited at a range of industry events carefully selected from our strategic list at the start of 2024. Notable highlights include The Forecourt Show at the NEC in Birmingham, where we worked to further expand our network partnerships within the forecourt and convenience sector.
Our forecourt presence has grown significantly this year, highlighted by our new partnership with Sterling Petroleum, a leading independent forecourt operator in the UK, through which we’ve partnered with 24 stores.
Additionally, we secured new network partnerships and expansion opportunities with The FED, participating in their London District Trade Shows in April and November. These efforts led to the addition of over 76 new location partnerships.
There are numerous new partnerships that have been developing in the carrier and retail space, all of which have plans to deploy, pilot and grow in 2025. More information will be disclosed later in the year through our official press releases, so do stay tuned!
4. A Decade Of Parcelly
On the 8th of December, we celebrated Parcelly’s 10th Anniversary. From starting out as a hands-on B2C consumer app, to evolving into the leading PUDO B2B technology platform working with global brands, it really has been a remarkable journey to get to where we are today.
This milestone is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and innovation of the entire Parcelly team. A big thank you once again must go out to our trusted clients, incredible business partners and our shareholders. None of these achievements would have been possible without you all!
To reflect on this decade, our Co-Founders Sebastian Steinhauser and Michael Kuhlmann sat down together to discuss the journey. Please watch our anniversary teaser and full extended video version on one of our social channels.
5. Parcelly Outlook for 2025
As we step into the new year, we have a clear plan to strengthen Parcelly’s position in its core markets (UK, GER and IRE), a pipeline of technical innovations that will further differentiate the Parcelly platform from its competition and a clear path to build our growth trajectory further.
We are focusing on three key areas for platform improvements:
- Parcel Processing: Enhancing data quality, speed, and consistency to achieve a 98% accuracy rate- significantly exceeding the market average.
- Automation: Expanding automated processing to nearly double staff productivity in customer and network support, relative to parcels processed through the platform.
- Partner Integration: Streamlining integrations with external partners, reducing integration time by over 40%, while simultaneously introducing new service features, data processing capabilities, analytics, and reporting tools to enhance our clients’ service portfolios.
We have defined our PUDO service vertical as our main focus, which today constitutes 87% of our annualised revenue. Our gross margins will also be improving, not through price adjustments to clients, but by improving our automation levels. With that, we will be focusing specifically on the national cross-border and on-demand delivery verticals within the logistics industry.
With that in mind, we will continue to develop, enhance, and expand our micro-fulfilment capabilities, focusing specifically on e-commerce retailers without a physical presence or those planning to scale back their physical footprint. This will enable them to leverage our solution in any city where we currently operate.
Through our curated expansion of warehouses, supported by strong network partnerships, we can activate additional stores wherever and whenever a retailer or carrier partner requires them.
With >70% YoY growth in our core product service verticals, our annual performance has been in line with our ambitious growth targets, a standard that we measure our performance against and a target that the team continue to set itself and reach. We have set equally ambitious goals for 2025, aiming to ensure that the business operates sustainably across all core markets while delivering sufficient transactional flow for each of our service partners. Our target is to increase the Average Daily Volume (ADV) across our three markets from 4.6 to 5.5, while also expanding the network into financially viable postcodes where Parcelly is not yet present.
We plan to achieve this without significantly increasing headcount, further improving the efficiency achieved in 2024 by increasing the gap between parcel volume growth and the operational resources required. This will position Parcelly for greater financial success than ever before.
Our key targets for 2025 include maintaining a six-digit parcel volume and reducing the impact of seasonality during lower-performing months. Our goal is to limit monthly volume deviations to less than 10%, while growing overall parcel volume by another 65% year-on-year, ensuring consistently high parcel volumes throughout the year.
In addition to working with clients, we are in discussions with shareholders and investors as we prepare for multiple strategic and financial decisions over the next 12 months. More on this soon!
6. Industry Outlook for 2025
Although it has been a record-breaking year for Parcelly, market levels turned out to be different for the industry. We are well aware of several difficulties the industry faces, particularly the economic challenges in the UK influencing disposable incomes and therefore purchasing behaviours. Both the cost of living and interest rates in the UK remain high, directly impacting e-commerce growth, with research by Descartes highlighting less disposable income as the top reason inhibiting online purchases in 2024, up 37% from 2023. The impact of regulatory changes, such as the increase in Employer’s National Insurance from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025 is also likely to have financial implications for logistics businesses according to research by FleetPoint.
Customer expectations in 2025 are likely to be higher than ever, with same-day delivery becoming a major trend. According to McKinsey & Company, 90% of consumers see two or three-day delivery as a baseline, with 30% expecting same-day delivery. The focus on fast delivery shows a shift in consumer priorities towards immediate gratification. However, it is important to note that the cost of delivery is still very important and influential, evidenced by both fast and free shipping being consumers’ top delivery priorities of 2024 in research by Digital Commerce 360. With 81% of customers stating free delivery as their top priority when it comes to delivery, defining the balance here is key for 2025.
We are also likely to see the continued expansion of customer-centric delivery options, such as Out-of-Home (OOH) networks comprising parcel shops and lockers that meet consumers’ needs surrounding control and convenience. OOH delivery methods can achieve a seamless and convenient delivery experience for customers, while also easing the logistical burden for carriers through delivery consolidation, a top 2025 prediction by Direct Commerce. A trend, our PUDO networks in the UK, Germany and Ireland and our software solution are tailored towards.
The increased adoption of green logistics is also expected in 2025, in line with previous years, due to stricter regulations and consumer demand for greener practices, according to BDO. Logistics providers will continue to grow their electric vehicle fleets and adopt alternative fuels to decarbonise the last mile. For example, DHL research showed that 37% of their pick-up and delivery vehicles are electric, with the aim to increase this to 60% by 2030, as companies and governments aim to meet net-zero targets. This focus on decarbonising the last mile is something Parcelly has been focused on since 2014, made possible by our PUDO network that reduces the environmental impact of failed deliveries, inefficient delivery cycles or distances.
It will be interesting to see how these factors will merge in 2025 to form the e-commerce landscape of the UK, which desires delivery speed, convenience and sustainable practices but must meet specific economic pressures.
With January almost over, the entire Parcelly team wishes you a fantastic, successful and prosperous 2025! Here’s to another record-breaking year ahead!
