Logistics

XPO Logistics, a major logistics company from the US, has expanded its last mile logistics service of heavy goods to Europe. The last mile delivery service from XPO Logistics will be available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and France.

UK parcel carrier Yodel has launched a new service, called Xpect Returns. This is a collection service which helps consumers with getting their purchased items back to online retailers. Customers can now have their returns picked-up from their location within a two-hour collection window.

Buying cheap products online from Chinese ecommerce websites is very popular in Sweden. Every day around 150,000 packages from websites like Alibaba and Wish arrive at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Until now, customers didn't have to pay taxes on these purchases, but that's about to change. And, on top of that, PostNord will also charge a huge administration fee per package.

On average, 1 in every 20 online orders is not delivered on the first attempt. This costs retailers a lot of money, but it also damages the retailer's reputation. Existing customers go away and it's hard to acquire new ones. But what's the main reasons online orders don't arrive on time?

Customers in the UK increasingly expect it won't cost them anything to return the goods they ordered online. But this could lead to over 200 smaller ecommerce companies failing, a new study by ParcelHero shows. Many smaller online retailers feel the pressure to pay for the cost of returns, as want to maintain high customer service ratings.

Dutch online retailer Wehkamp will soon start building its second distribution center in Zwolle, the Netherlands. The new building will arise next to the current, fully automated distribution center. When the new center opens – probably at the end of this year -  Wehkamp will have a distribution center that's 60,000 square meters big.

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba will soon open a logistics center in France and increase the sale of French products on its online trading platforms. The company is currently looking for a site and for partners.

Omniva, an Estonian postal company which operates in the entire Baltic region, has started with expanding its network of parcel lockers. This month, it started with doubling the size of its locker offering, by adding 63 new parcel lockers to the Baltic network and expanding 100 existing parcel lockers.

42 percent of consumers from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden have used click & collect in the past twelve months. And one in four Europeans who used click & collect bought another product in-store while they were picking up their online order.

LogistCompare will launch in the United Kingdom. It's an online marketplace for retail and ecommerce customers who are looking for warehouse space. It seems like a great timing, considering the busy holiday season is near and retailers might be looking for extra space for inventory.

New research has revealed that on average, only half of retailers in Europe offer an express delivery option, while just 6 percent offer same day delivery. It's the United Kingdom that leads the way in terms of delivery options available to customers. With an average of 4.4 options it's way ahead of the European average of 2.7 options.

The demand for urban logistics space throughout Europe is growing, as there is an increasing number of ecommerce orders. It's forecasted the parcel volume in Europe will be increased with 69 percent by 2021. And online retailers want to please customers with last mile deliveries, so more warehouses in and around cities are needed.

Online consumers from the United Kingdom aren't unenthusiastic about paying for delivery, if the fee isn't too high. Two thirds of UK shoppers normally don't expect free delivery when placing orders online, but when orders go over 10 pounds they begin to expect free delivery options.

European online retailer VidaXL has started today with making its full assortment available for other online retailers. Through this dropshipment program, online retailers can easily grab all the needed product information and sell VidaXL's products through their own online stores.

Online shoppers are more satisfied with returns than last year, but still the overall customer satisfaction with returns (67 percent) is still much lower than the satisfaction with online delivery (85 percent). Online retailers should have a returns service that offers convenience, while also giving customers better in-transit information about their order.