The Maze: Poland and Britain offer two very different answers to the same delivery question. In the 2026 DHL E-Commerce Trends Report, 68% of surveyed Polish shoppers primarily choose parcel lockers, versus 12% in the UK. The 56-percentage-point gap makes a single European delivery default look rather optimistic. But it measures shopper preference, not the share of parcels delivered through lockers or the savings they generate. The commercial question is which option earns its place at checkout in each market.
Poland leads a ranking with a steep top end. Czech Republic follows at 56%, Sweden at 45% and China at 37%. Denmark falls to 24%, while Germany and Italy reach 22% each. Poland is therefore 12 points ahead of the next country and 44 ahead of Germany. That spread matters for a retailer expanding across borders: a delivery option customers treat as routine in one country can still be a secondary choice elsewhere. Treating the countries as one customer segment would hide the very difference the ranking exposes. The right comparison is the same survey response across markets, with no implied forecast about where those markets go next.
Britain sits in a crowded 12% group. The UK shares its locker figure with the Netherlands, Belgium and the UAE. France and Austria stand at 20%, Spain at 21% and Switzerland at 15%. The British result is low beside Poland, but it is not an isolated refusal of the format. The practical inference is narrower than a story of national backwardness: retailers should preserve attractive alternatives while testing how prominently to offer lockers. A low current preference leaves questions about access, price and habit unanswered. It does not tell an operator which of those constraints to fix first, or what a new installation will earn.
Locker preference cannot stand in for delivery economics. The underlying delivery table distinguishes lockers from parcel shops and home delivery; these options solve different customer needs. More locker use can plausibly let a carrier consolidate stops, but this survey does not measure that saving. Nor does a percentage of shoppers become a percentage of parcels when frequent and occasional buyers send different volumes. A retailer needs its own order mix, failed-delivery rate, collection speed and all-in costs before treating an adoption gap as a margin opportunity. A big percentage makes a useful question. It is not yet a business case.
The benchmark is a starting point for local tests. DHL's survey methodology covers 29,000 online shoppers across 29 countries, with fieldwork spanning December 2025 to February 2026. It provides a broad comparison, rather than an experiment separating infrastructure from consumer taste. Test locker visibility, location coverage and price separately; compare completed orders, repeat choice and delivery costs. Keep checkout choice available while measuring the result. That approach distinguishes demand that already exists from demand an operator hopes to create, and avoids importing Poland's response as a British growth target.
Why it matters: Cross-border retailers need a delivery offer that survives contact with local customers. Poland's lead makes lockers hard to ignore there; Britain's lower preference makes choice and testing more valuable than a forced switch. Use the country ranking to decide what to investigate, then let actual orders and costs set the investment pace. Checkout is where the promise meets the customer. The operating model still has to pay for it.
