Czech Post reports record number of Christmas packages
Czech Post accepted nearly 14 million packages in the last quarter of 2018, which is an increase by 15 percent on the same period in the previous year, the Czech News Agency reported on Friday.
According to Czech Post’s spokesman Matyáš Vitík, the main factor behind the increase is the growing number of internet sales in the Czech Republic.
At the height of the shopping season, Czech Post employed additional 5,000 workers and increased its fleet by 500 vehicles in order to deal with the increased number of packages. The week before Christmas Eve proved to be the busiest of the year, when staff had to deal with around 400,000 packages a day.
In 2018, Czech Post also sold a record number of on-line Christmas cards, a service introduced in 2015. The figure increased by around 50 percent on the previous year to over 700,000. Between December 17 and 18, people sent nearly 12,000 e-cards a day.
According to preliminary figures released by the Czech Association of Electronic Commerce, the annual turnover of Czech online retailers for 2018 is expected to reach 135 billion crowns, which is an increase by around 17 percent on the previous year.
In the period between October and December 23, Czechs spent some 45 billion crowns in e-shops, compared to 38 billion crowns in the same period past year and 32 billion in 2016.
The Czech Republic currently boasts the highest number of e-shops per person in Europe. There are currently around 43,500 e-shops operating in the country and according to experts, their number is expected to grow even further within the new few years.
