Higher eCommerce Demand Pushes DHL Supply Chain’s Growth

The DHL Supply Chain is capitalizing on the booming eCommerce phenomenon, processing 3 million orders and more than 11 million packages shipped between Black Friday and Dec. 3, the company said Monday (Dec. 20).

The peak demand during that seven-day period was nearly 14 times higher than average, DHL reported. In addition, nearly 100% of orders were processed within promised time frames.

“We have been planning for peak season 2021 with our customers since January, putting our planning, analytics and operations excellence in place to enable our customers to win the peak shopping season,” said Kraig Foreman, president of eCommerce, in a statement. “It’s been a great year for us. We are seeing about a 7 to 10% increase across our business in November and December so far.”

The Westerville, Ohio-based shipping giant said the size and scope of the DHL Supply Chain provided enormous buying power and scale to make sure customers are satisfied.

The company noted that its business model’s strength was allowing customers to grow their businesses by implementing a supply chain strategy that blends cost and service metrics. DSL said it assists to optimize supply chains with a network that is designed and consolidated with a variety of transportation modes calculated to boost productivity, forecasting, control and flexibility.

“We added more than 8,000 associates during this peak season, luring them to DHL Supply Chain through our culture, compensation and the ability to work with the latest in warehouse technology,” Foreman said.

DHL has 400,000 employees in more than 220 countries across the globe and promises to connect people and businesses to enable sustainable trade flows.

In June, DHL announced that it was expanding its partnership with Locus Robotics as it worked to find faster ways to ensure that the correct package gets to the right location, on time and undamaged.

Read more: DHL Dials Up Robotics Investment As Delivery Timeframes Shrink

DHL’s logistics and supply chain unit said that in 2022, it would double the number of “picking robots” to be deployed from Locus, up from an initial 1,000 robots to be deployed by the end of this year.

The robots, which can be used in eCommerce and warehouse settings to aid in inventory picking and stock replenishment, would boost a 500-robot fleet already in use by DHL (with an incremental 500 robots slated to come online this year). DHL has noted that the effort will reduce maneuvering pushcarts through the warehouses and reduces physical strain on warehouse employees.