DHL eCommerce Expands Fulfillment Solution in The U.S.

DHL eCommerce, a division of logistics company Deutsche Post DHL Group, announced an increase in capacity of its eCommerce order fulfillment services available in the North America, with the expansion of its fulfillment centers in Columbus, OH and Riverside, CA.

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The company also announced that is working on a center in Secaucus, NJ, providing eSellers with faster delivery times in the important North Eastern United States markets.

“The e-commerce market in the U.S. is estimated to have grown by 15.6% in 2016 with sales topping $531 billion, and increasingly e-tailers are seeking fulfillment solutions to enable an omni-channel experience for end consumers,” said Lee Spratt, CEO DHL eCommerce Americas.

DHL’s fulfillment solution is targeted at retailers shipping between 300 and 15,000 orders per day, and supports both B2C and B2B transactions.

The facilities are engineered as shared-use fulfillment centers, allowing online retailers to share space and assets within the warehouse.

Online retailers are charged only for the transactions they have within the warehouse with fees for receiving, storage, and outbound pick and pack.

Given the volatile and seasonal nature of eCommerce, removing the fixed cost burden should provide for cost savings to eSellers.

The DHL eCommerce fulfillment solution provides all the value-added services that many online retailers need, including:

• Standard integrations with commonly used e-commerce platforms and marketplaces, as well as more customized integrations to existing systems
• Fully published API that supports order creation, order status, inventory, and purchase order transactions
• “Plug and Play” system that allows retailers to scale globally, quickly and easily within the U.S., the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
• Inventory visibility and order orchestration across the entire global network of facilities
• Omni-channel support which includes the ability to interface and orchestrate orders with external inventory locations, including drop-ship vendors, existing customer facilities, or even store networks
• Best in class warehouse service levels including 24hr inventory put-away, and late cut-off times for same day dispatch to delivery partners
• A variety of domestic and international shipping service levels
• Transactional “pay as you go” pricing

While many eSellers may think of Amazon first when it comes to fulfillment, there could be a huge potential for services such as DHL eCommerce as they may offer solutions that allow eSellers to better control product locations.

This is becoming more of a concern to online retailers as states are going after Amazon and other fulfillment services to use product location as means to establish Nexus for sales tax collection purposes.

If you as an eSeller can reduce the locations to 3 or so geographically optimal fulfillment centers, you can simplify your sales tax collection and reporting.

As of today, Amazon operates fulfillment warehouses in over 20 states, creating a potential accounting nightmare, especially true for eSellers that sell products that Amazon “co-mingles”.

Are you using fulfillment warehousing yet? If so what do you like or dislike about the process?