Amazon Logistics sees major gains in 2023, report finds
Report finds industry in flux as Amazon Logistics and smaller carriers grew strongly, but parcel revenue fell for the first time in seven years
A report from Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE) found that Amazon Logistics was the only one of the four major carriers — USPS, UPS, FedEx, and Amazon Logistics — to report parcel volume growth from 2022 to 2023 in the US market, expanding by 15.7%.
Due to this increase, Amazon Logistics was able to overtake UPS in terms of parcel volume, shipping 5.9 billion parcels, compared to UPS’ 4.6 billion parcels. It is now established as a serious rival to USPS, the market leader, which shipped 6.6 billion packages according to the report.
UPS, FedEx and USPS observed decreases in parcel volume, decreasing 10.3%, 6.1% and 1%, respectively.
Overall US parcel volume growth has slowed from double digits to single digits in 2023, rising year-on-year by 0.5% in 2023 to 21.7 billion.
However, the market remains changed behavioural shifts created by the pandemic. The increasing demand for affordable goods from global marketplaces has resulted in an influx of smaller, lightweight packages, which boost parcel volumes while generating lower revenue per piece. Parcel revenue declined by 0.3% to $197.9 billion—the first decline in seven years, even as volumes moved upwards.
This appears to be driving growth in income and volume for smaller carriers alongside Amazon. In 2023, players outside of the big four players saw a combined volume growth of 28.5%.
“Consumer spending remains resilient, primarily via a growing demand for affordable goods from global marketplaces,” commented Shemin Nurmohamed, EVP and President, Sending Technology Solutions at Pitney Bowes. “The result is an influx of smaller, less-expensive, lightweight packages which drive up volumes at a lower rate of revenue-per-piece,”
“The legacy players are still adapting as the delivery landscape shifts to favour natively direct-to-consumer parcel networks that are designed from the start to serve residential deliveries,” said Vijay Ramachandran, VP of Go-to-Market Enablement and Experience at Pitney Bowes.