DHL Express Austria’s B2C shipment volume increased by more than 60% last year, while at the same time the customer portfolio grew by 83%.
This comes as a result of offering more cross-border e-commerce shipping to Austrian customers over the last three years in addition to the B2B core business, according to the company.
E-commerce business development manager Evelyne Leveke commented: “When we see that customers generated 73% more international orders last year than in 2018, and 20% of orders were shipped to the US, it shows first and foremost how "cross border ready" online shoppers are. It also shows how relevant fast delivery is for shoppers.”
DHL Express emphasised that in international trade reliable and fast delivery is one of the decisive factors, whether customers purchase in a webshop, leading to more and more Austrian webshops offering premium shipping options.
In particular, important online sales events have significantly increased consignment volumes, for example on the first working day after Black Friday and around Christmas. To receive items on time, for example before Christmas, premium delivery options provide web shops with more time to sell until shortly before Christmas and thus generate more sales.
According to internal analyses, DHL Express customers grew by 73% while forecasts by researchers eMarketer only predicted a global growth of 20%. These figures show that, if web shops offer DHL Express delivery options, they are likely to be more successful in international business.
Michael Welsch, Vice President Sales Austria, explained: “Our experience from numerous customer discussions shows us that a lot of potential is overlooked, especially in the cross-border shipping of goods.”
Some top trade lanes have been identified that were previously given little attention. As the most important trading partner of Austrian companies, Germany is the market that Austrian webshops are focusing on. In second place is the US market with 19% of e-commerce shipments, followed by Switzerland, making up 14%.
