Delivery and Shipping Behaviour of Commercial Clients of the CEP Service Providers

The courier, express and parcel (CEP) service continues its growing over the last decade. There are almost three billion deliveries shipped within Germany – with rising tendency. One reason for a further growing is the booming of e-commerce. As the importance of online shopping behaviour is growing, so far a lot of research has been carried out with main focus on delivery and ordering behaviour of private households in the e-commerce segment. At the moment, several household models and firm-specific datasets are available to analyse and to forecast parcel deliveries of private households. But businesses are still responsible for nearly half of all CEP services. There is still a lack of knowledge with regard to the delivery and shipping behaviour of commercial clients and their use of CEP service providers. However, the way shops are delivered has undergone an enormous change during the past decade. Based on an extensive literature analysis, we have identified the sketched gap and need for market research.