Pickup point vs home delivery in Czechia: 2026 prices

Czech online shopping runs on pickup points. Customers pick a výdejní místo or a box at checkout the way Dutch customers pick a delivery day, and the door is the option you pay extra for. For a foreign shop that is good news: the default your customers expect is also the cheaper one.

The detail is in which network, what the gap is, and what happens when a customer does not come. This article covers all three with prices we measured ourselves. It is the Czech part of pickup point vs home delivery in Europe.

How much cheaper is a pickup point in the Czech Republic? #

The prices below come from our shipping options for parcels sent inside the Czech Republic, measured on 29 September 2026. Each pair is the same carrier and the same size, once to a point or box and once to the door. They include our flat €0.85 platform fee, the same on both sides, so the gap is the carrier’s. Koruna prices are converted at the ECB rate of that day (€1 = Kč 24.411).

The pattern is consistent: the point wins everywhere, and the gap grows with size. For a medium parcel with GLS the door cost more than twice the point. For a large PPL parcel the door cost Kč 100.08 (€4.10) more. Only DPD keeps point and door close, but its point was also the most expensive of the four.

Without our fee, the cheapest domestic 2 kg carrier rate in the Czech Republic was €2.19 on the European shipping rates index of 26 September 2026, the same order of magnitude as Poland. Why that makes local stock worth it is in shipping to the Czech Republic without a Czech warehouse.

Which pickup networks do Czech customers use? #

Several networks compete for the same customer. On our rate card for the Czech Republic there are four:

One network that many Czech customers know is missing from that list: Zásilkovna, the Czech brand of Packeta. By its own count it passed 10,000 pickup points and Z-BOXes in the Czech Republic in September 2024, about 5,700 staffed points and 4,800 boxes. Packeta is not available through AirPost. If your customers ask for it, Balíkovna is the cheapest point service we can offer instead, and PPL is the one to use for large parcels.

What should a foreign shop set as the default in Czechia? #

• Small and medium parcels: Balíkovna to a point. At Kč 74.93 it was the cheapest service for both sizes, and one price for both makes your shipping cost easy to predict.
• GLS to a point as the second option. Kč 76.15 for a small parcel, barely more than Balíkovna, and a different network for customers who live closer to a GLS shop.
• Large parcels: PPL to a point. It was the only carrier with a 10–30 kg service, and its point price was Kč 100 less than its door.
• Door: Balíkovna na adresu when the customer pays for it. At Kč 112.03 it was the cheapest door we measured, Kč 17 to Kč 25 cheaper than the others.

Show the point as the first option at checkout and the door as the paid alternative, not the other way round. Customers who want the door will pick it; everyone else gets the cheaper service without thinking about it.

What happens when a Czech parcel is not collected? #

The collection window depends on where the parcel waits. For Balíkovna the terms are precise:

After the window the parcel goes back to the sender. With local stock that is your AirPost sender, who is the sender on the label, so the item returns to your stock in the Czech Republic. You have still paid for a label that delivered nothing, and the customer usually still wants the item.

The box window is the one to watch. A parcel that lands in a box on a Friday morning must be collected by Tuesday 7:00. For customers who travel, a staffed point with its 7 days is the safer choice. Tell customers the window in your shipping confirmation; it costs nothing and prevents most returns of this kind.

For home delivery, the failure costs you less: a failed attempt turns into a point parcel with the same 7-day window, and the extra step is already in the door price. That is part of why the door is dearer with every carrier.

How to set point or door with AirPost in the Czech Republic #

With local fulfilment through AirPost, a verified person in the Czech Republic holds a batch of your stock and ships each order as a domestic parcel. You pay the label, the fee you agree with your sender, and our €0.85 platform fee per parcel. No subscription, no storage costs.

1. 1

   Find a sender in the Czech Republic

   On /en/senders. Look for one who offers Balíkovna for everyday parcels and PPL if you sell anything large.

2. 2

   Choose the service per product

   Point for small and medium items, PPL to a point for large ones, the door only where the customer paid for it or the item is expensive.

3. 3

   Send the orders

   In the chat with address and size, or automatically from Shopify through the Airpost Order Link app. Your sender only sees the full address once they take the order.

4. 4

   Handle what comes back

   An uncollected parcel returns to your sender. A customer return is reported by your sender in the chat with five photos; you decide what happens to it, and their return price is charged only when you accept.

The same trade-off one border further is in shipping to Slovakia without a Slovak warehouse, and the full return flow in returns without a warehouse.