Peak e-commerce volumes soar past 2020 levels, DHL Supply Chain says

Third party logistics provider (3PL) DHL Supply Chain offered the latest proof point on “the booming e-commerce phenomenon” by sharing statistics showing that it has seen 15% growth through its e-commerce network this peak season, beating the record-setting volumes it saw in 2020. 

Westerville, Ohio-based DHL Supply Chain said that it processed 3 million orders with more than 11 million items shipped during the 7-day time period between Black Friday (November 26) and December 3.

The numbers show that e-commerce growth is a permanent trend, although consumers increasingly are spreading out their spending throughout the holidays instead of concentrating solely on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Kraig Foreman, DHL Supply Chain’s president of e-commerce, said in a release.

“We have been planning for Peak Season 2021 with our customers since January, putting our planning, analytics, and operations excellence in place to enable our customers to win the peak shopping season,” Foreman said. “We added more than 8,000 associates during this Peak season, luring them to DHL Supply Chain through our culture, compensation and the ability to work with the latest in warehouse technology.”

According to the company, those preparations have helped its clients to overcame the infrastructure challenges and other hurdles present in today’s retail and e-commerce space.

Those hurdles include three main trends, according to a global survey DHL recently conducted on the evolution of e-commerce supply chains in business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) markets. The analysis included responses from nearly 900 decision-makers responsible for logistics/supply chain management and e-commerce distribution strategy at companies in sectors including retail, consumer goods, life sciences, high tech, auto, and engineering & manufacturing.

The first conclusion in the report, “The E-Commerce Supply Chain—Overcoming Growing Pains,” was that while B2C e-commerce – especially retail – has been around longer than B2C, B2B has caught up in terms of offerings and execution quality.

Second, the survey showed that the key challenge for businesses in both the B2B and B2C markets is escalating consumer expectations. This concern focuses around the pressure to deliver excellent customer service, such as ease and convenience in both ordering and tracking shipments, and delivering near-instant service.

And third, the DHL survey revealed that no single e-commerce distribution method is dominating the industry. Rather, many e-commerce distribution strategies continue to be evaluated and defined, presenting implementation challenges.