Amid rapidly changing carrier pricing models, expanding fulfillment demands, and mounting operational pressures, Reveel’s 2025 Parcel Shipping Intelligence Market Survey Report reveals a clear message: parcel shipping is becoming more complex, more costly, and more strategic than ever before.
Every organization expected their shipping volumes to increase or stay the same this year, but almost half (44%) reported a lack of information about shipping expenses and what could help them improve. This points to growing frustration with carriers, as an overwhelming number of respondents (91%) expect to expand the number of carriers they're utilizing in response.
"Carriers are getting very creative with pricing; we've observed them leaning into definitional changes and incremental rate and fee increases without warning, applied at various times across the calendar year. It's clear shippers are frustrated, and are hoping to address these issues by expanding their carrier networks," says Jack McCrum, director of optimization and analytics at Reveel.
Key takeaways:
- 87% expect shipping volumes to increase this year.
- 44% felt they lacked adequate information on shipping costs.
- More than half lack insight into demand forecasting (59%), vendor performance (57%) and inventory levels (50%), all of which are key drivers of operational efficiency and improvement.
- 91% expect to expand their carrier networks to help reduce parcel shipping costs.
- 48% believed embracing automation was the strongest path to reducing expenses.
- All organizations believed that their shipping volume would either stay the same or increase over the course of the coming year. In fact, 87% expected volumes to increase, meaning that supply chain and logistics executives will have to proactively manage spending in their shipping operations in order to keep costs from spiraling out of control.
- Currently, logistics expenses average 22% of organizations' overall operating expenses. Within their overall logistics budgets, respondents also reported that the amount spent on parcel shipping breaks down as follows: 37% allocate between $2-10 million; 42% allocate between $10-50 million; and 21% allocate more than $50 million.
"This report confirms what we see every day: parcel shipping is one of the most under-managed, yet highest-impact areas in the supply chain," adds Josh Dunham, CEO and co-founder of Reveel. "Our mission is to empower companies with technology that makes it simple for them to understand their shipping data, control carrier relationships, and unlock savings that directly impact the bottom line."
