DHL partnership to expand Nordics and Baltics parcel delivery

DHL is extending its European B2C parcel network across the Nordics and Baltics in collaboration with DHL Freight Sweden, Finnish postal operator Posti and Bring, a subsidiary of the Norwegian postal operator.
It is claimed to be largest parcel network in northern Europe, offering a business to consumer infrastructure for parcel deliveries across Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic states.
It will enable “shorter transit times, Saturday delivery and arrival notifications to make online retailing more successful,” said the partners.
The non-exclusive cooperation will come into effect on April 1 and further extends DHL Parcel’s network for cross-border e-commerce by seven countries.
“Many of our customers today already ship items to the countries in northern Europe. Together with our local partners, we want to help them grow their business and develop the e-commerce market in these countries as best as possible,” explained Jürgen Gerdes, chief executive for Post-eCommerce-Parcel at Deutsche Post DHL Group.
He added: “At the outset we will offer the 22m online shoppers in northern Europe convenient access to the largest parcel shop network in this area.”
The partners hope to leverage today’s e-commerce volume in the Nordics and Baltics, worth €22.8bn, that is predicted to grow by 6% per annum until 2020.
Said DHL: “In the Nordics and Baltics, people are particularly open to online retailing and are above-average users of this service, as their expenditures per person significantly exceed the European average.”
In Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltics it is not common for parcels to be delivered to the customers’ doorstep: “The dense network will thus increase convenience for consumers,” said DHL.
After adding the Benelux countries, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Sweden, France and now Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, DHL Parcel is present in 16 European countries including its home market Germany.