DHL Express is targeting the fast-growing Finnish e-commerce market through a deal to set up a network of several hundred service points and parcel lockers at retail stores of the major retailer Kesko Group.
DHL Express and the K-Group have signed a cooperation agreement which will make 250-300 DHL service points available at the K-Group's food stores and building and home improvement stores in different parts of Finland. In addition, a network of parcel lockers will be set up at K-stores.
“We want to offer our customers a wide range of services and make shopping and daily life easier for them. Our partnering with DHL will bring the world closer to our customers. Starting already in a few weeks' time, parcels transported by DHL can be conveniently picked up in connection with shopping with us,” explained Tommi Kasurinen, Vice President for finance, store sites and logistics of Kesko's home improvement and speciality goods trade.
“For us, the growth of international e-commerce has meant that the number of shipments we transport has increased, as has the number of private customers. The share of business-to-consumer parcels has grown to more than 50% of our total shipments. In addition to receiving, we now want to make sending parcels as simple as possible. The K-Group's wide retail store network provides excellent opportunities to offer private customers new service options at locations where they shop anyway and make their transactions with us even easier,” commented Peter Ervasalo, Managing Director of DHL Express Finland.
The first yellow parcel lockers will be set up in the K-Group stores during September-October, and the first service points during the rest of the year. In the first stage, parcel lockers and service points will be set up at K-food stores and K-rauta stores in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Oulu, Tampere, Turku and Vaasa.
By the end of 2015, there will be some 30 lockers ready to receive parcels; at the service points, both receiving and sending is possible. It is planned that by the end of 2016, DHL Express services will be available at some 100 locations and in 2017, at approximately 250-300 locations.
At the initial stage, DHL parcel lockers will receive both international and domestic parcels shipped via DHL Express. In the next stage, it will be possible to send parcels through the parcel lockers, too. At DHL Service Points, both options will be available.
Kesko's international operations enable a similar cooperation to be launched also in other countries in the future. The Finnish group, with annual turnover of €11 billion, also has stores in Norway, Sweden, Russia (St Petersburg and Moscow), and the Baltic States.
