More and more Italians prefer Out of Home delivery over traditional home delivery. More precisely, 22.5% of deliveries are made via a Locker, a Pick-up Point or at a point of sale.
These are the data – very fresh – of the research “NetRetail 2025. Gli acquisti digitali degli italiani” curated by Netcomm and presented yesterday during Netcomm Forum 2025, the reference event in Italy for the world of eCommerce, Digital Retail, Logistics and Marketing Digital at which we at GEL Proximity were also present!
The NetRetail 2025 Research takes a snapshot, as it does every year, of the purchasing behaviour and habits of Italians who shop online, suggesting possible perspectives for companies wishing to take a more omnichannel approach to sales. Here are all the main data relating to the world of delivery that emerged from the Research.
Average number of monthly deliveries increases
In 2025, the total value of online purchases generated by Italian online shoppers is expected to reach EUR 88 billion. To put it bluntly, the value of Italian eCommerce has grown 8.6 times in fourteen years.
Focusing on the average number of monthly parcel deliveries originated by the eCommerce channel, it is therefore not surprising to see estimates that 70 million units will be exceeded in 2025, a volume up from the 2024 average of 67 million units.
Looking back even further, to ten years ago, the numbers are impressive: in 2015, the volume of monthly parcels originating from online sales stood at 11.1 million units. Translated, within a decade, the monthly volume grew year on year by 61.9 million units.
A look at eShoppers
Contributing to the growth in the volume of parcels originating from the digital channel is certainly the growth in the number of online shoppers. Indeed, there are approximately 35 million Italian eShoppers in the first three months of 2025, 119% more than ten years ago.
Of these, 9 million are sporadic buyers, i.e. they made one or two online purchases in the quarter, while the remaining 25.9 million are classified as regular buyers, i.e. they made three or more purchases in the quarter.
In total, in the first quarter of the year, 211 million online purchases were generated by Italian residents and referred to both products and digital goods and services, 38% more than in the same period of 2019, i.e. pre-pandemic. The share of product purchases, however, prevails over services: in the first three months of 2025, 75 out of every 100 online purchases were in fact related to physical products, which were subsequently delivered or collected by the buyer.
And it is precisely this aspect that we are interested in analysing: delivery.
More and more Italians prefer deliveries at Locker and Pick-up Points
Although the traditional home delivery – in jargon, Home Delivery – remains the mode most frequently chosen by Italian online shoppers (75.3%), the number of shoppers who prefer alternative, more practical and flexible modes such as Locker and Pick-up Points is increasing sharply, year after year.
In 22.5% of the cases, physical products purchased online were in fact picked up by the customer at the point of sale of a brand, or at a Pick-up Point or Locker indicated by the Merchant.
More precisely, 12.5% of parcels are picked up at a third location, such as the post office, a newsagent’s, a café or any commercial activity offering the Pick-up Point service, while 5.6% choose a Locker, the automatic lockers available 27/7 for the collection of goods. The remaining 4.4% are collected at the point of sale, i.e. in Click&Collect mode. The number of brands offering the possibility of in-store pick-up of products purchased online is indeed growing, but is still limited to a small proportion of outlets.
Although the number of Out of Home deliveries is still lower than Home Delivery, the growth potential of these alternative modes of collection is evident. Over the past ten years, deliveries of an online purchase to a third-party address other than the merchant’s shop have grown more than tenfold. In particular, deliveries to Lockers are growing at a very fast pace and by 2025 they surpassed deliveries to Merchants’ shops.
Looking at the data, one can see that the growth in just one year – from 2024 to 2025 – was 5.4 per cent, while compared to ten years (2015) the increase is 16.1 per cent.
Factors contributing to the growth of Out of Home
Among the factors influencing consumer preference for alternative modes of delivery, such as Locker and Pick-up Points, is the growing desire on the part of online shoppers to receive their orders in a shorter period of time. Translated: fast delivery is one of the main drivers of online shopping, and deliveries at Locker and Pick-up Points offer the possibility to reduce delivery times by streamlining the logistical process.
Accuracy and punctuality of the delivery service are also two increasingly crucial factors for eShoppers.
As far as Out of Home delivery is concerned, another central theme remains that of capillarity. The pick-up services developed over the last ten years have in fact mainly involved the North-West and Central regions, while the North-East is a geographical area with slightly different dynamics compared to the rest of Italy. Pick-up (as opposed to delivery) is a more widespread behaviour in large urban centres (30,000 inhabitants and above), while it is less widespread in small towns.
The strategic location of Pick-up Points and Lockers, especially in non-urban areas, therefore remains a key factor that will greatly influence the adoption of these solutions by eShoppers.
Delivery as a driver of online purchasing
Summing up, it is clear that Logistics plays – and will increasingly play – a central role as a driver of online purchasing.
The NetRetail 2025 Research clearly shows that eShoppers are increasingly focusing on the efficiency of the purchasing process, with particular emphasis on the delivery phase. Among the three main reasons for buying online, 15% of online shoppers (which, doing a quick calculation, out of a total of 35 million eShoppers means 5.25 million users) indicate a good delivery service.
And you, do you already offer a delivery service that lives up to your customers’ expectations?
To remain competitive in the eCommerce landscape, offering increasingly efficient and flexible delivery solutions is crucial. That is why, instead of lagging behind, you should immediately think about integrating Locker and Pick-up Points to your online store. In the coming months, more and more customers will want to be able to pick up their online orders away from home.
With the solutions offered by GEL Proximity, integrating a Network of over 300,000 Lockers and Pick-up Points already active in the territory to your online store is quick and easy.
You can connect GEL Proximity using our dedicated libraries and APIs, or by downloading the module from the marketplace of your eCommerce software.
