Pickup point vs home delivery in Europe: 20-country costs

For a separate weight budget before choosing pickup or home, compare the new country tables: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Belgium. Those index tables exclude the platform fee, unlike the delivery comparisons here.

New country-specific delivery choices: Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Portugal. Separate carrier-only weight budgets: Czechia and Denmark. Each article identifies its own price basis and dated snapshot.

Pickup point vs home delivery: the price in each country #

Same country, same carrier, same small parcel (up to 5 kg), once to a pickup point or locker and once to the door. Prices via AirPost, measured on 1 October 2026 on our shipping options page. They include our €0.85 platform fee, which is the same on both sides, so the gap is the carrier’s. Per country we took the cheapest carrier that offers both.

Three things stand out. The Nordics are where the door is expensive: in Norway PostNord charged €14.43 more for home delivery than for a service point. France is the largest gap in the eurozone. And in the door-first countries the gap is small — PostNL charged €7.84 to a point and €8.12 to the door.

The cheapest service in a country is not always a point. In Germany the lowest small-parcel price was DPD home delivery at €5.55, cheaper than any point; in Italy it was InPost locker-to-locker at €4.46. And in Portugal DPD charged more to a parcel shop than to the door. Carrier rates without our fee, at 2, 5 and 10 kg, are in the European shipping rates index.

Which default to choose per country #

For France, Belgium and Poland the point or locker is the default and the door the paid option; for Germany and the Netherlands the reverse. Not sure for your own customers? Offer both at the same price for a month and look at what they pick.

Three forms, three axes #

Home delivery is a courier driving to an address at a time the customer did not choose. At a pickup point the courier drops dozens of parcels at one place and the customer comes when it suits them — no failed attempt, so a lower rate. A locker is a point without opening hours: the best of the three for someone home at ten in the evening, and no option at all where there is none nearby.

What fails, and who pays for it #

• Door: not at home. The courier returns or leaves the parcel with a neighbour or at a point. The cost is the carrier’s, so it is in the rate.
• Point: the customer never comes. After the holding period the parcel goes back to the sender. That is a return shipment, and the cost is yours.
• Locker: full or too small. The parcel is diverted to a nearby point and the customer gets a message they did not expect. Rare, but confusing.

The rule for your default #

• ✓Point or locker as default where it is the norm and the customer did not pay for home delivery.
• ✓Home delivery where the customer chose it, where it is the norm, or where the product is expensive or fragile.
• ✓Lockers where the carrier has many; in Italy and Poland they are often the cheapest service.
• ✕One default for all countries. What is normal in Amsterdam is a complaint in Lyon.
• ✕A point as default for large or heavy parcels. Points refuse them and your order stalls.
• ✕Home delivery "to avoid the risk". The risk moves into the rate, which you pay on every order.

How this works with AirPost #

With local fulfilment through AirPost, a verified person in your customer’s country holds a batch of your stock and ships each order as a domestic parcel. The point-or-door choice becomes a setting per product and country. 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 country

   On /en/senders, filter by price and parcel size. Every sender is identity-checked, with reviews from other shops.

2. 2

   Send a test batch

   One box of a best seller, with your own packaging. The stock stays yours and is returned within 14 days if you ask.

3. 3

   Choose a default per product and country

   Point or locker, home, standard or express — use the tables above. With Shopify, paid orders reach your sender automatically through the Airpost Order Link app.

4. 4

   Review the returns after a month

   Uncollected parcels are the cost of the point. If there are more than a few, home delivery is the better default for that product.

Pickup point or door, country by country #

• Western Europe: Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria.
• Southern and Central Europe: Spain, Italy, Poland, Czechia.
• United Kingdom: pickup point vs home delivery in the UK.
• Lockers only: parcel lockers in Europe compared. Whole markets: Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, Spain.