DPD targets Swiss B2C market with major parcel shop expansion

DPD is planning a major move into the Swiss B2C parcels market by expanding its small parcelshop network from 62 locations to a total of 600 locations by 2014 and will invest in improving the

With e-commerce customers becoming increasingly important for DPD, the parcel shops are alsogaining in importance as they are more and more used by customers to pick up and ship parcels, aswell as to send off return shipments. In response to this trend, DPD Switzerland is now pushingforward the development of its parcel shop network.

In future, private customers will be able to use the DPD parcel shops to send their parcels toprivate recipients or to companies. The parcel shops also play an important role in returnsmanagement with customers being able to return goods back to the retailer at their local DPD parcelshop. In addition, DPD is planning to launch a number of innovations within its parcel shop networkwhich are not yet to be found on the Swiss market.

The company aims to provide a better infrastructure for further growth in the B2C sector throughmade-to-measure products and IT-aided services for its parcel shops and will set up a new BusinessDevelopment division.

“Private consignees are often not at home when their parcel is delivered,” Marc Hasler, CEO atDPD Switzerland, explained. “Picking up the parcel at a nearby DPD parcel shop is for manyconsignees a practical alternative to home delivery of their parcel. In addition, this enables usto avoid unnecessary delivery trips, which reduces CO2 emissions.”

Customers who are not reached at home when their parcel is delivered can currently use theonline portal www.dpdgetyourparcel.ch to redirect their parcel to anaddress where they can be reached during the day or to a DPD parcel shop, or even specify analternative date for the delivery.

DPD sees itself as the leading private parcels operator in Switzerland with a market share ofabout 10%. The company, with more than 800 employees and 11 logistics centres, delivers more than15 million parcels a year.