Covid-19 outbreak pushes DHL e-Commerce volumes to peak season levels

DHL eCommerce Solutions has seen its volumes reach peak season levels as consumers turn to online shopping as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.

The company said that consumers in the US have been ordering health, wellness and home office supplies over the last five weeks.

As a result, the DHL division has seen volume growth of more than 36% in domestic volume and 28% cross border volume from the daily averages seen in February.

The top five fastest growing online lightweight product categories are: nutraceuticals, health and beauty, apparel, pharmaceuticals and home office supplies.

DHL eCommerce Solutions Americas chief executive, Lee Spratt, said: “We have seen large volume percentage increases mostly in the Northeast region of the US with a significant amount of volume entering the US inbound from China.

“We have seen holiday peak-level types of volume increases in the last few weeks as China opened once again, but we are also seeing our customers’ volumes as representative of various consumer buying trends as a result of the general public’s interest in staying healthy and taking on new roles as remote employees and students.”

He added: “We believe many of these e-commerce categories will continue strong into the second and third quarter as social distancing practices and precautions continue and we expect more online retailers to expand their existing online product portfolios to include personal protective equipment.”