Fetch Releases Package Volume Projections

E-commerce growth rates to hover at 13% for the next three years

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Sep 29, 2020, 08:30 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Fetch, the first and only off-site package solution for apartment communities, recently released three-year projections for package volume in the multifamily space.

Of the countless ways that Covid-19 has impacted the apartment industry, one of the most lasting effects may be package volume. As brick-and-mortar retail stores temporarily closed and consumers became hesitant to venture out, renters increasingly turned to online shopping.

For property managers, the result has been an onslaught of packages being delivered to their communities. Unfortunately for multifamily properties, that trend won't be slowing anytime soon. In fact, the data suggests just the opposite.

From January 2019 to January 2020, per-unit package volume among apartment communities served by Fetch increased by only a modest 2%. However, as coronavirus concerns began to emerge in February, package volume spiked to 29% above figures from the previous year.

That was just the beginning.

Year-over-year package numbers increased by 39% in March and 48% in April. Even as mandated closures and stay-at-home orders were lifted, package volume continued to skyrocket in May (58%), June (63%), July (37%), and August (41%) increase over the same month last year.

The average monthly package volume per apartment home for active Fetch users topped 10 packages in May, up from 6.34 the previous year with June (9.72), July (9.53), and August (9.83) averages easily surpassing the holiday season average of 9.05 in December 2019.

"With the package volume apartment communities are currently experiencing, it's like every day is Cyber Monday'' said Fetch Founder and CEO Michael Patton. "Multifamily properties need a sustainable solution to their increasing package needs, because our projections show that this trend will only continue."

Fetch projections anticipate that monthly package rates for users will retract slightly to 8.19 packages per apartment home in 2021, before climbing to 9.41 in 2022 and 10.65 packages per month in 2023. Growth rates for e-commerce ballooned to an assumed 18% in 2020, and the growth rate is projected to remain above 13% for the next two years before settling in at 12.9% in 2023.

Fetch, which will deliver approximately 2.7 million packages in 2020, expects to deliver just over 8.7 million packages to apartment homes by the end of 2021 using growth projections to include expected new customers, with that number increasing to more than 36.8 million packages by 2023.

"Covid-19 may have accelerated online buying behavior, but the shopping habits of residents won't just regress when virus concerns subside," Patton said. "E-commerce is here to stay, and package management is a burden that property managers will be forced to deal with at increasing levels for the foreseeable future."

About Fetch
Fetch was founded in 2016 in Dallas, Texas, and has since expanded across the country to scale with current and new clients. The last-mile package delivery company currently operates in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Chicago, Phoenix, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Ore. Fetch accepts deliveries at local Fetch-operated facilities and works directly with residents to schedule door-to-door delivery. The proven system solves the package problem for multifamily properties and provides residents with a convenient and time-saving amenity. With e-commerce growing rapidly, Fetch is a scalable solution for apartment owners and managers struggling to deal with the exponential growth of resident deliveries.