Such is the degree to which we have become so accustomed to e-commerce that buying online is now, for many people, the default method of doing their shopping.
Yet from time to time, we are reminded of the key factors in our decision to reach for our computers, tablets and smartphones rather than heading to the high street.
One such prompt is the annual authoritative report on the status of Out-of-Home (OOH) delivery infrastructure across Europe compiled by Last Mile Experts.
The 2025 edition not only underlines just how integral both Pick-Up and Drop-Off (PUDO) points and automated parcel lockers (APMs) have been in facilitating the continued growth of e-commerce but why drop2shop is proving so popular with brands and e-shoppers alike.
It’s a comprehensive study which not only provides a snapshot of current provision but attempts to identify how things might change in the years ahead.
The latest issue reveals that, together with couriers making home deliveries, the near 377,000 PUDO points and APMs across Europe handled roughly 21.5 billion parcels last year.
They are increasingly relied on by retailers and consumers for a number of reasons.
From a logistics’ perspective, they are far more efficient, reducing the amount of unique parcel deliveries because they allow for a greater consolidation of packages.
Put more simply, more parcels can be delivered in a single journey by a courier to a PUDO point or APM than individual trips to consumers’ homes. They are also more likely to result in successful first-time deliveries.
By doing so, they not only make sense from an economic and time-management point of view but generate less of a carbon footprint.
The fact that there are now more OOH locations means that they are also more likely to be close to consumers’ homes and, therefore, more convenient.
That is, the Last Mile Experts’ report noted, important for younger age groups who are responsible for a larger proportion of online shopping.
Those same Gen-Z and Millennials, researchers found, are also the people most likely to consider the environment when it comes to determining how they take delivery of their orders.
What is more is that our award-winning drop2shop topped the Last Mile Experts’ study of OOH provision in Ireland.
drop2shop was established to allow consumers to receive or return goods bought from major online brands via some of Ireland’s best known convenience stores – the sort of places at which one million of the country’s population shop on a daily basis.
Furthermore, online purchases are brought to or from drop2shop partner premises on the same vehicles which deliver store stock, making the need for extra vehicles and a much greater carbon footprint completely unnecessary.
The element of convenience provided by drop2shop is now even greater, given that it is offered as one of the in-store services available at many of the Irish premises operated by the pharmacy and healthcare giant Boots – maximising the ease with which consumers can collect or return goods bought online.
As has been noted elsewhere, the growth of Ireland as an e-commerce marketplace is significant.
Late last year, ComReg, the regulator overseeing Ireland’s delivery industries, published figures showing that some 42 million parcels were sent to the Republic from overseas during 2023, many of them dispatched by leading retail brands based in the UK.
Establishing a solution for deliveries and returns means striking the right balance between speed and efficiency, convenience and sustainability.
The latter point is not just a way of building appeal with consumers who have an environmental conscience.
The same year covered by the latest ComReg data saw the European Union introduce new rules to provide consumers with greater information about the carbon emissions involved in various e-commerce delivery methods, enabling them to make a more “informed choices” about how they collect or return goods.
drop2shop was set up several years before the EU’s initiative but with the same objective in mind.
It is another reason why our network goes from strength to strength, favoured by a growing number of major brands and online shoppers, and leading the way in Ireland e-commerce deliveries and returns once again.