DHL expands e-commerce fulfilment internationally

DHL Parcel and DHL eCommerce are now offering online retailers a global solution for their e-commerce fulfilment needs with a global fulfilment platform and new fulfilment centers in the UK, Americas and South-east Asia.

Today’s e-commerce market is placing aggressive demands on the retailer to provide fast fulfilment and delivery, and doing so without increasing costs. This is simply not possible for most merchants because they lack capital or the ability to manage the complexity.

DHL has built a new IT platform that provides access to a network of fulfilment centres and is closely integrated with DHL’s shipping capabilities to allow our customers to meet their fulfilment and shipping requirements in a much more efficient fashion.

DHL is investing in this platform as well as in expanding its fulfilment centres in key international markets, enabling retailers to reach their consumers worldwide.

“Without seamless and reliable logistics processes, the current e-commerce boom would be inconceivable. The physical storage of ordered goods, their picking and packaging, the global shipping and delivery to the end-user’s front door or desired address – we now offer all of this in even more markets and from one single source,” says Jürgen Gerdes, CEO of the Post – eCommerce – Parcel division at Deutsche Post DHL Group.

“By further internationalizing our fulfilment portfolio we will be able to do even more to help online retailers tap into new regions and benefit from the global e-commerce boom.”

With existing fulfilment centres in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Australia, Germany, and now in the United Kingdom and South-east Asia, DHL already covers major e-commerce markets with its own presence and will expand these further in the future.

Situated near London on an area of about 6,500 square meters, the latest addition to the fulfilment network in the UK town of Radlett, offers great potential for same-day processing for the Greater London area due to the centre’s good transport links.

Apart from the centre in Radlett, DHL is already working on the expansion of its fulfilment centres across other European markets, like the Netherlands, Poland or Switzerland.

The new IT platform allows DHL to provide online retailers with access to all of these e-commerce regions from a single source. This ensures simple and secure data synchronization as well as an easy connection to new business locations or regions since a reintegration is no longer required.

“Online retailers don’t have to look for new logistics partners any more if they want to expand their international reach,” Gerdes says.

By directly integrating the new DHL solution into the webshop of the relevant retailer, the business can access different reporting options in real time and view current order data, for example, or the stock of individual products.

More and more retailers and companies recognize the increasing importance of smooth fulfilment processes because traditional approaches that are aligned with individual sales channels have long since failed to satisfy the purchasing habits and expectations of modern consumers.