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Action on cross-border parcel delivery needed to boost online shopping: EU

Xinhua, December 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

Consumers and retailers are still held back by high costs of cross-border delivery and problems placing online orders, which involve a parcel being delivered from one European Union (EU) member state to another, the European Commission said in a press release on Tuesday.

Moreover, a newly-published study, which was also included in the press release, shows that cross-border parcel prices for national postal operators are almost five times higher than their domestic equivalents.

Currently, 44 percent of consumers buy online in their own country, but only 15 percent order online from another EU member state, according to a press release from the EU.

As set out in the Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy, the European Commission plans to make shipments of cross-border parcels more affordable, and will launch measures in spring 2016 to enhance price transparency and regulatory oversight of the cross-border parcel markets, said the press release.

"The high prices and inefficiency of cross-border parcel delivery deter people from selling to or buying from other EU countries. This means that e-commerce is not being used to its full potential," said European Commission vice president Andrus Ansip, in charge of the digital single market.

"We now need to make sure that it can develop across all of the European Union, putting this important part of the DSM strategy into effect as quickly as possible," added Ansip. Endit