Logistics

Aldi Nord is expanding its ecommerce division. The German discounter is currently testing a delivery service in Spain and Portugal. Aldi is still not fully present in the ecommerce division, as neither Aldi Nord nor Aldi Süd deliver groceries. But that's about to change.

The Suez Canal blockage, from 23 until 29 March, doesn't just affect the Egyptian economy or the global shipping industry. Around 12 percent of global trade passed through the canal, so a lot is affected by the blockage. The delay will strongly impact on ecommerce orders placed by European consumers.

Parcel locker provider InPost has launched a returns solution that wants to simplify the process of returning items that were bought online. Customers no longer need to use or print labels, instead they use a QR code on their smartphone.

VidaXL, an online retailer from the Netherlands, will build two new fulfillment centers in Europe. One will open in the Netherlands, while the other will arise in Poland. The two fulfillment centers are part of VidaXL's growth strategy.

Cubyn, a logistics startup from France, has raised 35 million euros in funding. The Paris-based company wants to use this money to expand its fulfillment and delivery services across Europe.

Polish parcel locker company InPost has acquired Mondial Relay, a major logistics company from France. InPost will pay 565 million euros to buy Mondial Relay and thus expand its international presence.

Budbee, a last-mile delivery startup from Sweden, will soon become available in Belgium. The logistics tech company has announced it will start in Flanders and Brussels. Later on, it will also expand to Wallonia.

ZigZag Global, a returns management platform from the United Kingdom, announced it has been acquired by Global Blue, a tourism shopping tax refund company, headquartered in Switzerland. ZigZag's solutions will be cross-sold into Global Blue's extensive merchant network.

Deutsche Post DHL Group saw its revenue increase by 5.5 percent to 66.8 billion euros in 2020. This growth was primarily driven by the global ecommerce boom. The pandemic measures worldwide led to higher parcel volumes.

Posti will open the largest parcel locker space in Europe. On March 12, the current space in the Munkkivuori shopping center in Helsinki will be turned into an OmaPosti kiosk, while the number of available lockers will be doubled.

StoreShippers, a same-day-delivery service that collects and delivers from store, has launched its services in Ireland. The Dutch logistics company is now active in 7 countries across Europe.

Logistics investments in Europe went up to 38.64 billion euros in 2020. This is, of course, driven by the massive growth of ecommerce in Europe. Last year marks the highest figure on record since 2013.

Online shops in Germany have done a solid job in terms of shipping online orders to customers. Last year, was a difficult year, because of the sudden peak in ecommerce, but most things went well, a new study shows.

Online shoppers in the United Kingdom are sitting on 2.4 billion pounds (2.74 billion euros) of unreturned goods they have purchased through the internet. Returning these items has become harder with the lockdown restrictions in place.

The Netherlands is the most popular destination for online retailers looking to expand. These ecommerce players see this Western European country as the number one place to expand their logistics operations.