DHL delivered more than 6,000 packages with FC Bayern Munich merchandise ordered via the online flagship store on Tmall Global on China’s “Singles’ Day” on November 11.
This year’s Singles’ Day was a debut for the FC Bayern Munich store, which was set up in conjunction with DHL eCommerce and Tmall Global, an overseas platform and an extension of Alibaba Group’s B2C Tmall business in China, in May 2015.
As part of its inaugural participation, FC Bayern Munich rolled out a series of special offers and products, which have been designed exclusively for the Chinese market like sports apparel, branded accessories and life style articles. Within the pre sales phase which started 4 weeks before Singles Day, fans reserved their favourite products in order to place their discounted order in time on November 11.
The success of this special sales activity is based on the end-to-end e-commerce services provided by DHL eCommerce. A significant number of additional articles was shipped to DHL’s Hong Kong fulfilment centre ahead of the event to support the predicted surge in demand. DHL managed the full supply chain including pre sales promotion, customer service, warehousing, fulfilment and delivery. Due to special discounts up to 50% the number of orders on November 11 was 30 times higher than on average days since the flagship store was launched.
“Nobody can predict exactly what will happen for an event as large and highly-feted as Singles Day, which makes rigorous and careful planning all the more important,” said Thomas Kipp, CEO, DHL eCommerce. “From forecasting likely sales volumes per product based on data from our Warehouse Management System, to coordinating extra staff shifts and updating processes to accommodate the latest parcel compliance requirements into their delivery schedules, we sought to scale up and push the limits of what DHL can deliver at every stage of the e-commerce process.”
“DHL and FC Bayern Munich’s management of the store’s order fulfilment shows a high degree of maturity, innovation, and most of all customer satisfaction, which is all the more impressive given the complexities of the Chinese e-commerce market for a store that was launched not even six months ago”, he added.
“Our 90 million Chinese fans always expect us to deliver an outstanding performance – especially during high-profile events such as Singles’ Day,” commented Jörg Wacker, Executive Board Member – Internationalization and Strategy, FC Bayern Munich.
“Our partner DHL manages the entire e-commerce fulfilment process. They ensure that our full range of merchandise remains in stock and is delivered to our fans in time, which is very important to us. Working closely with DHL makes it possible to continuously extend and improve the services that we can offer to our fans.”
DHL’s Hong Kong fulfilment centre, which orchestrates the end-to-end management of FC Bayern Munich’s online flagship store, is part of the logistics company’s global e-fulfilment platform that also includes centres in the US, Mexico and India. DHL eCommerce will again support the online retail efforts of many businesses of all sizes around the world during the holiday season.
