Deutsche Post DHL Group is to spend $137 million on upgrading US domestic and cross-border e-commerce capabilities, to cater for the market that is expected to be worth $1 trillion by 2020.
The $137 million will be spent on expanding fulfilment capabilities with eight new distribution centres and enhancing two existing facilities in Los Angeles and Columbus. The Group will make investments as part of its Strategy 2020, with regional centres in New Jersey and other locations. DHL Express has also opened a $1.3 million service centre facility in Chicago to cater for e-commerce, and DHL Global Forwarding opened a $35 million centre in Chicago.
DHL eCommerce chief executive officer, Charles Brewer says: “There is barely any other industry that provides such a promising outlook than the e-commerce business. It is expected that one billion people will shop online and across borders by 2020 with the U.S. being the most popular origin for 25 percent of consumers worldwide.”
“With our investments we lay the foundation to expand our leading role in cross-border e-commerce logistics, serve our U.S. customers with the best possible infrastructure and solutions, and gain future market shares”
DHL says B2C cross-border e-commerce is worth $400 billion and will be valued at $1 trillion by 2020, with emerging markets fuelling the growth, followed by Western Europe and North America. It says China’s middle-class will have the highest purchasing power in Asia-Pacific, and they will be buying products online that are either unavailable or too expensive in their home country.
