What 68% and 12% actually describe
DHL's 2026 E-Commerce Trends Report records parcel lockers as the predominant delivery method for 68% of surveyed shoppers in Poland and 12% in the UK. The country table on printed page 71 concerns how respondents mainly receive their purchases. It is a useful signal of different reported practices, but its unit is the shopper, not the parcel. Someone receiving orders frequently and someone receiving them occasionally each contributes a respondent; their parcel volumes need not be equal.
Those percentages therefore do not establish national parcel-volume shares, a stated intention to choose a locker, or a preference measured independently of available services. Nor do they predict the utilization or profitability of a particular site. For a Chinese merchant or logistics operator entering a destination market, the productive question is which local delivery conditions to investigate, rather than which country's percentage to adopt as a growth target.
Keep the survey period and population attached
The report's methodology on printed page 78 describes 1,000 online shoppers in each of 29 countries, with fieldwork from December 2025 to February 2026. DHL released the report on 2 June 2026. The results describe that survey period; they are not a live reading of October behavior. Its separate business survey covers 5,800 respondents across 28 countries and cannot be pooled with the shopper sample to change the denominator of the delivery table.
This article does not independently assess respondent microdata, weighting or national representativeness. The country contrast can guide local research, but it does not identify its causes. Service availability, pricing, address characteristics and the choices presented at checkout are possible explanations to investigate. Establishing their respective effects requires additional evidence; simply repeating the country comparison cannot resolve them.
Define the service the customer can actually use
A useful local comparison starts with an offer, not a machine. Home delivery, a staffed pickup point and a locker may serve different eligible addresses and parcel sizes. Their access hours, collection distance, assistance arrangements and treatment of full compartments or expired collection periods also differ. These are proposed evaluation dimensions, to be checked against the selected provider's current service terms.
For a China-origin shipment, distinguish the delivery option sold to the merchant from the option eventually offered to the recipient. An automatic diversion to a pickup point is not the same offer as a pickup location chosen before purchase. Define what counts as fulfilling each promise, how the recipient is informed and what happens when the intended location is unavailable. Otherwise, an apparent cost improvement may reflect a changed customer obligation, with travel or uncertainty transferred to the recipient.
Count allocated parcels before counting successes
Define the comparison cohort at an agreed allocation event: parcels accepted for the selected local service within a stated period. Record eligibility, the intended mode and subsequent reallocations. Keep the measurement unit consistent. An order can contain several parcels, while a parcel can generate several handling events; neither an order count nor a scan count is a substitute for a parcel count.
Then define completion against the service promise. Depositing a parcel in a locker and the recipient collecting it are distinct events. Report both where relevant, alongside valid home-delivery completion. Parcels still awaiting collection, redirected after overflow, returned after expiry or otherwise unfinished remain in the allocated cohort. Separate completed-parcel outcomes from open work at the observation cutoff. Removing difficult cases from the denominator would make the operation appear more successful without changing what happened to those parcels.
Follow cost through the whole operation
Use a common cost boundary that follows the same cohort through transport, handling and exceptions. Depending on the service, this can include route labor and vehicle use, loading and unloading, site charges, locker maintenance, software, support contacts, repeat attempts, overflow transfers and uncollected returns. Attribute shared costs with an explicit rule. If station labor already includes a handling activity, do not add the same activity again under another cost label.
Cash and accounting answer different questions. Show the cash required to purchase equipment or launch a site separately from the period's allocated equipment cost. Adding the full purchase price and depreciation into the same period would count the asset twice. Also distinguish existing committed costs from expenditure that the next expansion would actually change. Report total cohort cost and cost per completed parcel together with the completion share and open cases. A lower unit cost alone cannot show whether the service delivered an acceptable result.
Capacity depends on collection and availability
Installed compartments are not a complete measure of usable capacity. Parcel dimensions determine which spaces are suitable, and a space remains occupied until collection or removal releases it. Measure arrival patterns, time awaiting collection and the return of each space to availability. Examine peaks as well as averages: spare capacity elsewhere or earlier in the day may not help a parcel arriving at a full site.
Compare the operational consequences. Consolidating deliveries at one location can reduce address stops, but filling it, handling overflow and collecting expired parcels still require work. A high occupancy figure may indicate efficient use or a constraint that forces diversions; the accompanying service outcomes decide which interpretation fits. Evaluate capacity against the intended collection window and workload, rather than treating a busy locker or a large installed network as evidence of economical completion.
Compare similar work and disclose selection
Customers who select a locker may differ from those choosing home delivery in availability, travel patterns or urgency. Sites may also receive different parcel sizes, address densities and daily peaks. A simple comparison of their completed deliveries can therefore confuse selection with operational performance. Compare eligible, allocated parcels across similar geographic areas, time periods and parcel characteristics, and describe differences that remain.
Track the promised outcome alongside cost: whether delivery met the agreed timing and location, whether collection was possible as offered, and how exceptions were resolved. A delivery photograph or a published status alone does not answer every one of those questions. Where a controlled allocation is feasible within consent and service requirements, it can strengthen the comparison. Where it is not, explain the allocation process and avoid presenting an observational difference as proof that the delivery mode caused the result.
Let local evidence determine the next commitment
Before a trial, agree which customer promise must be preserved, which cost boundary will be used and what would justify continuing, revising or stopping. The decision threshold should follow the local workload, required service and resources available, rather than a national survey percentage. Review results over a period that captures the relevant workload variation, and show unresolved parcels and costs still awaiting reconciliation.
The sources examined here do not provide the local operating dataset or an independent cost estimate needed to approve a particular investment. They support careful interpretation of the survey; the assessment method above is CEP Insight's analysis. A credible expansion case must connect the actual offer, comparable parcel workload, usable capacity, full operating cost and customer outcome. For networks connecting China with overseas markets, that connection is what turns a broad market signal into a defensible local decision.
The practical takeaway
Use country surveys to identify questions for local research. Commit to a delivery mode only after comparing the same service promise, complete parcel cohorts, usable capacity and full costs, with customer outcomes and unfinished work visible.
Sources & further reading
Industry knowledge and interpretation; carrier terms and local requirements vary.
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