Pitney Bowes released its annual U.S. Parcel Shipping Index on Wednesday, and it was a great year for Amazon.
The shipping giant showed an impressive 15.7% increase in parcel volumes compared to the previous year, passing UPS and closing in on the US Postal Service, which remains the leader with FedEx being fourth.
UPS and FedEx both experienced declines in parcel volume and revenue, reflecting a challenging year for the two major carriers. Despite inflation and economic uncertainties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon Logistics and USPS managed to sustain revenue growth.
Despite tripling its shipping volumes from 2019 to 2023 (from 2 billion to 5.9 billion parcels), Amazon remains fourth in revenue ($28.6B), generating less than half of UPS ($68.9B) and FedEx ($63.2B).
“The legacy players are still adapting as the delivery landscape shifts to favor natively direct-to-consumer parcel networks that are designed from the start to serve residential deliveries, such as the USPS, Amazon Logistics, and specialized/localized carriers,” said Vijay Ramachandran, VP of Go-to-Market Enablement and Experience at Pitney Bowes.
“While parcel volume growth has shifted from double to single digits, consumers’ appetites for 'real-time retail,’ or affordable goods that are brought to market based on fast-moving trends, will continue to elevate parcel volumes well beyond the effects of the pandemic.”
Carrier Volume
While U.S. parcel volume didn’t change significantly from 2022, total volume was up 0.5% from 21.5 billion in 2022 to 21.7 billion in 2023. Additionally, 2023 was the first time in the Index’s history that Amazon Logistics—the only carrier that did not see a decline—surpassed UPS in parcel volume.
Carrier Revenue
In 2023, U.S. parcel revenue declined slightly for the first time in 7 years by 0.3% from $198.4 billion in 2022 to $197.9 billion, reflecting high capacity built after the pandemic and intense competition.
Market Share by Volume