GLS has launched a same-day delivery service in ten cities across Germany, with the deliveries being made in the evenings via its own parcel network.
GLS SameDay has been initially launched in the cities of Berlin, Bonn, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Cologne, Munich and Nuremberg.
Among the service’s customers is notebooksbilliger.de, a large German online retailer for electronics products which, according to its website, “ships overwhelmingly” with Hermes and UPS (using its next-day 12:00 express delivery service).
GLS said that if the recipient's address is located in the defined postcode area, the delivery via GLS SameDay is made on the same evening between 5:30-10pm. Should the recipient be not at home when the package is delivered, GLS will automatically make a new delivery attempt on the next working day.
A spokeswoman explained to CEP-Research that the latest customer order time and also the collection times from the shipper depend on the processes of the individual e-retailer.
GLS stressed that the same-day parcels are handled via its own network and not via external couriers. “This guarantees an attractive offering, an interface-free tracking and consistently high quality,” the company said.
According to a study on same-day delivery by the German research institute ECC Cologne, only about 5% of all German online retailers are currently offering this service even though market studies indicate that more than 40% of end-users actively ask for it and perceive it as a premium service.
By 2020, same-day delivery is estimated to account for about 15% of the parcels market in Western Europe, according to a McKinsey study on “Same-Day Delivery – The next evolutionary step in parcel logistics”.
“With same-day delivery option, we offer online retailers considerably more convenience for their customers,” said Martin Seidenberg, Chairman of the Management Board at GLS Germany. “Even for high street retailers, same day delivery offers attractive growth opportunities. In addition, rapid delivery strengthens the positive shopping experience and the return rate decreases,” he added.
