DHL to surf US e-commerce boom with $137m investment

Deutsche Post DHL Group (DP-DHL) has announced a $137m investment plan for the US domestic and cross-border e-commerce market.
The German-headquartered logistics group said that its objective is to exploit the global business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce market for shipments crossing borders which is expected to grow from $400bn today to a total global volume of $1trn in 2020, according to data from Accenture and AliResearch.
Said DP-DHL: “Since US online merchants take the leading role in selling internationally, DHL eCommerce will make substantial investments in the US in the next years and expand its capabilities to serve businesses selling abroad significantly.”
The planned expenditure until the end of 2020 will be used for the further expansion of fulfilment capabilities by adding eight distribution centres and enhancing two existing facilities in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio.
Charles Brewer, chief executive of DHL eCommerce, said: "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 US being the most popular origin for 25% of consumers worldwide."
DP-DHL said that today’s global B2C cross-border e-commerce market is expected to expand rapidly: “Particularly emerging markets are going to fuel the estimated annual growth rate of 28%, followed by Western Europe and North America.
“Thanks to China’s growing middle class, which will reach 630m people by 2022, most of the purchasing power will come from Asia-Pacific and equal about 48% of the total volume.”
Research shows that consumers increasingly buy products online that are either unavailable or too expensive in their home country, said DHL.
“The biggest share of these cross-border purchases will revert back to US e-commerce businesses, among other reasons because consumers covet products tagged with the ‘Made in the US’ label. DHL is looking to benefit from these developments and increase its e-commerce footprint in the US.”