Postal Parcel Volume in Kenya Increased by 549 Percent in One Quarter Due to the Impact of E-Commerce

Activity in Kenya’s e-commerce sector had a strong impact on postal and last-mile delivery operations. According to data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), the domestic parcel volume of the country’s public postal operator, the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK), increased by 549.2 percent in the final quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, reaching 667,978. In the previous quarter, this figure stood at 102,890.

E-Commerce and Last-Mile Delivery Came to the Fore in Kenya

The CA reported that two developments contributed to the rapid increase during the April, June 2026 period. While the lifting of the embargo on Express Mail Service (EMS) shipments increased parcel volumes, a partnership focused on last-mile delivery also supported the growth of e-commerce shipments. The system operated by PCK in partnership with TAZ Technologies enables mail and parcels to be delivered directly from post offices to customers’ addresses.

Despite the quarterly growth, the annual parcel volume of Kenya’s public postal operator remained below the previous year’s level. PCK handled 993,090 domestic parcels in the 2025/26 financial year, representing a 33.2 percent decline compared with 1.49 million in the previous financial year.

Private Courier Companies Handled 14.42 Million Parcels

The impact of e-commerce-driven deliveries was also reflected in the figures of private courier companies. Private operators in Kenya handled 14.42 million domestic parcels in the 2025/26 financial year. This represented a 9.3 percent increase compared with the 13.19 million parcels recorded in the previous year. During the April, June period, however, private companies’ parcel volumes decreased by 8.5 percent quarter-on-quarter to 3.37 million.

Growth was also recorded in the sector’s financial indicators. The total revenue of courier companies increased by 6.7 percent to 6.70 billion Kenyan shillings. Revenue generated by local courier operators rose by 67.5 percent to 2.01 billion shillings, while revenue generated by international operators declined by 7.7 percent to 4.69 billion shillings.

Digital Retail Grows as Traditional Mail Declines

While PCK’s domestic letter volume declined by 70.2 percent over the financial year, the number of employees in the postal and courier sector increased to 6,885 as of June 2026. The CA states that digital transformation, e-commerce, and changing consumer demands are reshaping the postal and courier sector. The authority also identifies digital addressing, shipment tracking technologies, last-mile optimization, and digital payment integrations among the sector’s areas of development.

As AI-powered route optimization and delivery technologies also become part of digitalization across the global retail and logistics sectors, the announced data indicate that growth in Kenya during the current period is being driven particularly by online shopping and last-mile delivery.