Logistics

No, Amazon didn’t make a typographical error at its site. The American retailer is really charging its French customers for shipping at the rate of one euro cent. And it has everything to do with the ongoing feud between Amazon and the French government.

DHL will invest 195 million euros (£156 million) in the United Kingdom. It invests heavily in the East Midlands and Heathrow, by improving the sorting and aircraft landing facilities at these sites. It will be Deutsche Post DHL’s largest investment in the UK in 14 years.

With 25 percent of European ecommerce turnover, Germany has one of the largest ecommerce industries in Europe. And the €40 billion market is set to hit 100 billion euros in 2020. This predicted growth of course can only happen if the country keeps investing on logistics. Luckily, that happens. Germany’s leading logistics companies invest 1 billion dollars in cutting delivery times.

Kiala, which sends parcels to over 11,700 convenient collection points throughout Western Europe, has enabled merchants to get their goods delivered to other countries where Kiala is active. From now one, an online merchant sending parcels using Kiala can also send these parcels to the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Spain.

There’s still a massive lack of multichannel integration in the United Kingdom, as 50% of retailers with stores, still don't allow unwanted goods bought online to be returned to a store. This number hasn't really changed in the last seven years, a new study shows.

Amazon has expanded its distribution centre in Italy. In Castel San Giovanni, placed in the province of Piacenza, one of Europe's most innovative distribution centers arises. It's 70,000 square meters big and by opening this new distribution center there will be about 1,000 new jobs.

Hermes Group has recorded sales of 2.08 billion euros. Its twelve individual companies grew their combined sales by 8% year-on-year in 2013. Parcel volumes grew by 10%, which led to the Anglo-German parcel carrier handling around 496 million items during last year.

Volvo has showed off its Roam Delivery service, which turns cars into grocery dropboxes. The Swedish manufacturing company calls this groundbreaking and claims it’s the world’s first delivery service for bringing food and other items to the car.

Zalando is expanding its logistics centre in Mönchengladbach, Germany. Its facility is already 78,000 square meters large, but now 56,000 sqm of expansion space will be developed alongside the current logistics center. When it’s finished (development is due for completion in September 2014), it will be the largest dedicated ecommerce logistics centre in Europe.

Wehkamp.nl wants to reduce the amount of returns of fashion items, its top-selling category. The biggest online clothing store of the Netherlands has to deal with return rates around fifty percent. It now wants to reduce this by measuring all their clothes, so customers will return less ill-fitting articles.

DHL is experimenting with a package delivery system in Stockholm, based on crowdsourcing. Via an app called MyWays ordinary people are used to deliver packages to (other) end consumers. Through DHL Freight’s network of service points in Sweden’s capital the service let consumers specify a time and place for delivery, as well as the fee offered for delivery.

Otto Group will invest 50 million euros in its order fulfillment and parcel delivery infrastructure in Russia. The German company will also open its network to third-party retailers. With the investment the capacity of Otto’s logistics center will be doubled, creating almost 700 extra jobs by 2014.

Staff members of Amazon Germany staged a daylong strike yesterday, demanding better payments and benefits. Trade Union Verdi called on workers at Amazon’s logistics center in Leipzig to stop working from 12:30 p.m. ET. It’s the second time within a month workers at Amazon’s logistics centers have staged protest against the global internet retailer.

Deutsche Post is starting an experiment with boxes installed at people’s homes. This way the German mail service could drop the parcels in the secured boxes when a customer isn’t home. It’s all part of a greater plan, as Europe’s largest mail service wants to deliver more parcels, especially with the expected boost of food and consumer goods deliveries.

42% of the merchants in the Internet Retailer Top 500 ship to at least some European countries. Web-only merchants seem to be the most European centered retailers. More than 150 retailers ship to all the 18 biggest European online retail markets, including The United Kingdom, Germany and France.