Tuesday, 29 September 2026
Parcel lockers have moved rapidly from an alternative delivery option to a central part of the Czech e-commerce logistics network, with some of the country’s largest online retailers now sending more than half of their orders to automated collection points. The shift is also creating growing demand for accessible last-mile locations around residential areas, supermarkets, retail parks and transport routes.
Czech consumers have become particularly strong adopters of the model. DHL research shows that 56% of shoppers in the Czech Republic now favour lockers for receiving online purchases, compared with 25% across Europe. Only 23% of Czech respondents prefer delivery to their home or another private address, illustrating how substantially consumer behaviour has moved towards collection outside the home.
Retailers are seeing the change directly in their delivery volumes. Alza says more than half of its parcels are collected through lockers, while Pilulka reports that the proportion has risen above 40%, compared with around 15% a year earlier. Notino says almost two-thirds of its deliveries now use lockers, while fashion retailer Bastard.cz reports that the share has increased to 61% this year. These figures are company-reported rather than independently measured market statistics, but collectively they illustrate the scale of the change taking place across different areas of Czech online retail.
Logistics companies are responding with further investment. GLS currently operates more than 2,000 of its own Czech lockers and plans to install approximately another 1,000 by spring 2027. In September, the company also introduced Saturday deliveries across its entire domestic locker network, effectively adding another regular delivery day for participating online retailers.
The market is simultaneously becoming more interconnected. Rather than requiring every logistics company to construct an entirely separate network, carriers increasingly provide access to machines operated by other companies. GLS, for example, combines its approximately 2,000 proprietary lockers with access to around 2,200 AlzaBoxes and 140 DPD machines, alongside staffed collection locations.
This shared approach means headline figures for the number of lockers available through individual delivery companies should be treated carefully. A machine owned by one operator can appear within the networks of several carriers, so adding together the totals published by individual companies would substantially overstate the number of physical installations. The more relevant measure for consumers is increasingly the density of locations they can actually use rather than which company owns each machine.
Convenience remains the principal advantage. Automated locations allow consumers to collect purchases independently of courier schedules and conventional shop opening hours, while operators are increasingly adding services such as returns, longer collection periods and weekend deliveries. Most GLS machines, for example, operate continuously and can be used both to receive and send parcels.
The speed of the transition is particularly notable. DHL’s 2025 Czech study found that 41% of consumers preferred lockers for deliveries, already making them the country’s leading delivery choice. The latest international DHL data put that figure at 56%, suggesting that adoption has continued to accelerate as networks have become denser and consumers more accustomed to automated collection.
For the commercial property market, the expansion creates a new layer of competition for convenient last-mile locations. Retail parks, supermarkets, petrol stations, residential schemes and mixed-use developments can provide the accessibility and regular traffic required by operators. As coverage becomes increasingly comprehensive, future expansion is likely to depend not simply on installing more machines but on securing the right sites and ensuring sufficient compartment capacity in areas with the strongest parcel volumes.
Czechia is consequently moving into a more mature phase of parcel-locker development. Network ownership remains important, but accessibility, interoperability, capacity and service frequency are becoming increasingly significant competitive factors. With more than half of Czech consumers now favouring lockers, automated collection has become part of the country’s everyday logistics infrastructure and an increasingly relevant consideration for retail and residential property owners.
Source: CTK
