Logistics

About four out of five shoppers in the United Kingdom and Germany are satisfied with the level of parcel delivery services. An increase in new services, time scales and communications are the reason three quarters of consumers believe delivery services are improving.

There's a big demand for so called prime warehouses in Europe, and the scarcity of it is affecting both occupier and investment markets in Europe. It has led to bidding wars at a European scale, which will push yields down, a new study shows.

Argos has announced it offers same-day store collection and same-day home delivery for nearly 20,000 products across the United Kingdom. It says it’s the first retailer in the UK to do this. Argos was also the first to launch click & collect 15 years ago and it already had a nationwide home delivery service in 1999.

An Post, the state-owned postal services provider of Ireland, is joining the world of delivery boxes. Last month, An Post announced it has started its Delivery Box service. "No more missed deliveries, stress-free online shopping and your parcels delivered safely even when you are out", the company promises.

DPD has announced it has extended its Pickup network across Europe. SEUR, one of DPDgroups brands, is set to extend its network in Spain to 1,600 Pickup points by 2016. DPD UK already offers more than 2,000 Pickup Points for out-of-home deliveries. DPDgroup now has over 20,000 Pickup points in 13 countries across Europe.

The Finnish postal service Posti Group had run some tests with drones for parcel delivery. At the beginning of this month, the postal company let drones fly while transporting parcels between mainland Helsinki and Suomenlinna, an island fortress about five kilometers from the Finnish capital.

German fashion retailer Zalando will start the construction of its fourth fulfillment center in Germany in October. The self-operating logistics center will be 130,000 square meters big and allows the ecommerce company to serve customers in Southern Germany, Switzerland and France even faster.

Amazon has opened a distribution center in Dobroviz, near Prague. The new logistics facility started full operation yesterday, with the Czech minister of Industry and Trade attending the opening. The site already has 1,500 permanent employees.

DPD, GLS and Hermes are about to launch a parcel locker company, but have changed the name of their joint venture company. Previously called Unibox, the carrier-neutral parcel boxes now will launch under the brand name ParcelLock. At first UPS was also involved in the development of the parcel lockers, but the courier company is now no longer mentioned.

Docdata, a Dutch service provider for online retailers, will work with Allegro Group in Poland. Docdata was already active in this Eastern European country, but this will be its first complete fulfilment operation in Poland. For Allegro, Docdata will be providing both fulfilment and returns management.

Wehkamp will offer all of its Dutch customers same day delivery later this year. Thanks to the new distribution center it will open next month, the online retailer will be able to offer this option to online shoppers in the Netherlands.

DHL Parcel had announced plans to expand its service in Europe by opening its own parcel network in Austria by 2016. After the Benelux, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Austria is the latest market that will be entered by the European parcel division that was launched last year by Deutsche Post DHL Group.

Amazon is rolling out Ship by Region for European sellers. With the new feature, they can provide a wider selection of countries to which they deliver their products and set tailor-made delivery rates and delivery promises by each country selected.

Panattoni Europe, a logistics real estate developer as well as investor, will develop the largest logistics facility in Germany. It has been awarded this contract by Jago AG, one of the largest ecommerce companies in Germany. The entire project is due to be completed in August 2017.

Having an efficient delivery management system is important for ecommerce success. Improving your existing delivery service can bring greater returns on your operational spend as well as satisfy your shoppers even more. However, 57% of shoppers think that the current delivery options offered by retailers are not satisfactory.