This is what scaling fast looks like!

Andreas Bicking, VP DHL Fulfillment Network, takes up the story: “With an ambitious global roll-out plan and a very positive response by their consumers, our customer needed to deliver a lot more: more products to more customers in more countries around the globe.

“Initially, they were fulfilling orders from just one distribution center. This meant shipments were taking a long time to arrive, and shipping costs were high. To top it off, sending single orders to international locations meant their pile of customs and regulatory paperwork was becoming enormous.”

The customer knew they needed to start fulfilling orders from more than one site, but they did not know where exactly product sales would be taking off – either now or in future. “They needed a fulfillment operation that was fast but also flexible, allowing them to adapt their requirements to fit their needs over time,” explains Andreas.

“The DHL Fulfillment Network proved a great fit, as it is so scalable. We successfully launched with them on just one of our sites, and then quickly scaled up, adding six more of our sites in only six months.” This customer now distributes their stock across more than ten DHL Fulfillment Network sites. “And they did all this without a fixed investment in warehouses: they use our existing sites and our existing network and they scaled up to suit their own needs.”

The benefits are very real and significant.

Another major benefit is that customers can access their data centrally on one platform – their shipments, their stock levels, their in- and outbound deliveries per site. It feels like managing one ‘virtual’ warehouse.  The DHL Fulfillment Network’s advanced inventory insights platform offers customers a global overview of their inventory and sales, and means they can drill down into this for more site-specific detail. “Big data, small team,” summarizes Andreas: “Our customers can keep their logistics team small and use our data and tools to help them steer a global supply-chain and drive customer satisfaction.”

“The concept of de-centralized fulfillment has relevance for many companies of all sizes. Our Network Optimizer tool can help you quickly assess how your company and consumers could benefit.” says Andreas.

By simply stating where your current distribution center is, the markets you ship to, and your annual order volumes, our tool will send you an instant snapshot that estimates how much more quickly you could reach your customers.

Achieve your growth ambitions with the DHL Fulfillment Network.