OREANDA-NEWS. July 03, 2013. Deutsche Post DHL is launching an immediate effort to substantially expand the number of drop-off points available for private parcel shipments in Germany: By the end of 2014, the market leader in the German parcel segment plans to open an additional 20,000 DHL parcel shops, primarily in Germany’s major metropolitan areas. Once the new shops are in operation, Deutsche Post DHL will have more than 50,000 parcel drop-off points across the country, and the company can be found by customers everywhere.

“We have never transported as many parcels in our company’s entire history as we did last year, and the growth is just continuing in 2013,” says Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL. “By expanding our network of DHL parcel shops, we are continuing to systematically focus on the needs of consumers in Germany, becoming even more customer centric and laying the foundation for even more online retailing in Germany.”

In a study titled Einkaufen 4.0 (Shopping 4.0), Deutsche Post DHL and the market-research firm TNS Infratest conducted a survey about the online shopping habits of approximately 1,800 online shoppers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A total of 61 percent said they did not want to do without e-commerce. German retailers are already selling nearly 10 percent of their products – or about EUR 30 billion in sales – through mail-order operations. Over the next 10 years, the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association predicts the total will rise to up to 20 percent.

Need for convenient and flexible pick-up and drop-off options

As new business models in the booming online-retailing sector emerge and consumer shopping habits change, the need for convenient and flexible pick-up and drop-off options has arisen. “The success of e-commerce will increasingly be decided during the first mile and, above all, during the last mile,” says Jurgen Gerdes, the member of the Board of Management at Deutsche Post DHL who oversees the MAIL Division. “We are already providing parcel recipients with full transparency and control over the products they order and offer the most flexible network for parcel shipping in Germany by far.”

In setting up its new DHL parcel shops, Deutsche Post DHL will apply a similar approach to the one it is already using with partner retail outlets and sales points. The company will create a close working relationship with retailers, draw on their awareness of customer needs and take advantage of their store hours. At the DHL parcel shops, consumers will be able to drop off franked parcels, small packages and returns. As a result, they will gain another way for dropping off packages with return receipts that will complement the company’s 13,000 postal retail outlets and more than 2,500 Packstations. The first approximately 100 DHL parcel shops opened today in Berlin, and other shops around the country will go into operation on a step-by-step basis in coming weeks and months. In this year alone, Deutsche Post DHL expects a total of 10,000 new DHL parcel shops will be opened. The rest will follow through the end of 2014.

DHL Parcel is also expanding its network of Packstations

For some time now, the private customers of DHL Parcel have been able to give their franked small packages, parcels and returns to their carrier. This service is provided at no extra charge. In addition, DHL is testing a parcel box – a container that resembles a small Packstation – for single- and two-family homes in rural areas.

DHL Parcel is also continuously expanding its network of Packstations as a way of providing even better service to the growing number of users in German cities. More than 230,000 Packstation compartments are now available to around 4 million registered customers across the country. By the end of 2013, the total number of compartments will rise to 250,000, and the number of Packstations themselves will climb to 2,650.

Since 2009, revenues in the parcel business have been rising by an average of about 10.5 percent a year. This growth business is already producing more than 25 percent of total revenues in the MAIL Division. The Group plans to invest around EUR 750 million in its parcel network through 2015 as a way of fueling the positive performance of the parcel business and bolstering the success of the MAIL Division. Over the long term, these investments will help the parcel business join the traditional mail operation and e-products as a key pillar of the MAIL Division. This new business will also make an important contribution to the success of the entire Group.