Volumes of both parcels and letters have increased. Two-thirds of the shipments were parcels, one-third were holiday cards and letters.
According to member of the board and head of parcel business at Omniva Kristi Unt, last year brought about a huge growth in the entire e-commerce business; in December, however, parcel volumes in parcel machines increased more than 50% compared to previous years.
“This Christmas season was the first time people started holiday shopping early and planned their purchases ahead,” Unt said. “During the month of December, daily parcel volumes remained steadily high and therefore we managed to distribute the parcel volume more evenly. Such a smart consumer trend is very welcomed.”
According to Unt, the peak week for parcel volumes was the week before Christmas (14-20 December), which indicates that the majority of people did not rely on last minute shopping. “On the busiest day, we sorted nearly 100,000 parcels at the logistics centre,” Unt added. “Our parcel machine service has performed exceptionally well; we delivered twice as many parcels this December than in December 2019. Such increase can only be achieved thanks to careful planning and smart parcel volume management. Clients picking up their parcels quickly was also an important factor.”
According to December’s statistics, 80% of parcels were retrieved from parcel machines in one day. On average, one parcel remained in the parcel machine for slightly more than 16 hours. Tallinna Kristiine shopping centre parcel machine was the most popular.
Estonians are sending more and more Christmas cards
Although the number of post cards and letters sent through the year has been dropping each year, the number of letters sent during December stays the same. The number of Estonian people sending letters to their loved ones on major holidays and anniversaries is high. Although the amount of letter sent in Estonia last year declined by 12%, in December 2020 nearly 600 000 letters were sent in Estonia, just like last year.
According to Unt, Christmas season is indeed the most popular time for sending letters – nearly half of all stamped letters are posted at the end of the year. In terms of letters, the holiday season of 2020 peaked on 22 December when more than 160 thousand letters were delivered to recipients. The main area of activity of the group operating under the Omniva brand is the provision of postal, logistics and information logistics services and the handling of e-invoices. In addition to the parent company AS Eesti Post, the group includes subsidiaries and related companies. SIA Omniva and UAB Omniva LT provide parcel machine and courier services on the Latvian and Lithuanian markets. The area of activity of AS Maksekeskus is the provision of payment solutions for e-commerce companies in the Baltics. Post11 offers e-merchants integral international logistics solutions for the delivery of goods all over the world and Finbite OÜ provides fintech services in the Baltic States.
AS Eesti Post is a company owned by the state. The group employs 2300 people across the Baltic States.