Guest blog: Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs - Main contents

Have delivery issues ever prevented you from shopping or selling online to or from another EU country? Let us hear from you.

I would like to welcome my colleague Elżbieta Bieńkowska in this guest blog about the Commission's ongoing public consultation on parcel delivery.

Improving online access to digital goods and services is a major objective of our strategy to build a Digital Single Market in Europe. One barrier that is preventing the expansion of e-commerce across the EU's 28 countries is parcel delivery.

Today, the cost of sending something that you have bought via a website in one EU country to your home address in another is often much more than for national delivery, in general two to five, but up to 22 times higher.

Buyers as well as sellers want smooth, affordable and convenient delivery to other EU countries. High prices and inefficiency of parcel delivery should not be an obstacle to cross-border online commerce: today, 62% of companies that would like to sell online say that high delivery costs are a problem for them.

Not only do we need to build consumer trust, we also need to make delivery more efficient and affordable, and make it more attractive for people to buy from another EU country.

Elżbieta and I want to hear everyone's views on the best way to tackle this issue and your ideas on how more transparency and enhanced regulatory oversight of parcel delivery can be achieved.

Welcome@EBienkowskaEU on #Ansipblogs

Have delivery issues ever prevented you from shopping or selling online to or from another EU country? Let us hear from you.

By Elżbieta Bieńkowska

On 6 May the European Commission launched the Digital Single Market Strategy, setting out 16 initiatives that the Commission will deliver by the end of 2016.

Since more efficient and affordable cross-border parcel delivery is one of its priorities, the Commission also opened a public consultation on the same day to give the opportunity to business, consumers and any other parties involved to have their say about parcel delivery and possible areas for its improvement.

Delivery is a crucial part of e-commerce and the online shopping experience. As e-commerce grows across Europe, so do the expectations of consumers and e-retailers when it comes to the quality and availability of parcel delivery services. High delivery (and return) costs, long delivery times, and inconvenient delivery (and return) options are repeatedly the top concerns mentioned by businesses and consumers, especially when it comes to buying from or selling to other EU countries.

If you have been frustrated by having to take a day off work to wait for a parcel delivery that never arrived; or if you want to sell to other countries but are concerned that the article might be lost; or unwanted items cannot be returned to you, then we would like to hear from you.

If you are an e-retailer, we would like to understand what delivery issues hold you back from selling more to other EU countries.

If you are a consumer, we want to know about the experiences you have had when receiving parcels.

If you are a delivery operator, we want to know about your company and the problems it faces. Even if you do not shop or sell online, we would like to know what is preventing you from doing so.

You can tell us what you like - or dislike - about current delivery practices and how you think the situation could be further improved, up to July 29.

To participate in the consultation, please click here.

We are listening to your views. We hope that your experiences can help us to find ways to improve delivery and help create a true digital single market in Europe.

Thank you once again for taking part and sharing your thoughts on parcel delivery.