DHL eCommerce opens Aussie fulfillment center

DHL eCommerce, a division of Deutsche Post DHL Group, launched a fulfillment center in Sydney to meet Australian domestic demand for overseas goods ordered by online shoppers. The new center allows international retailers to reach domestic consumers in, “one of the world’s most mature and fastest-growing e-commerce markets,” said Damien Sheehan, managing director for Australia at DHL eCommerce.

“Australian shoppers are the second-most likely in the world to buy online from overseas merchants,” Sheehan said, noting that the country’s purchasing power would only increase as cross-border e-commerce grows at an average of 29 percent per year.

In 2014, Australia exported US$243 billion of goods, including $60 billion worth of iron ore on a natural-resource intensive bill of export.  The country imported $219 billion, resulting in a positive trade balance of $24.8 billion, including $55 billion worth of technology and IT-related equipment. In other words, most of the sort of products Australian consumers are buying online, in this scenario, are imported.

The Australian center joins a list of eight DHL fulfillment facilities in countries such as the United States, India and Germany. The Sydney facility will offer DHL’s fulfillment products, which allow retailers to provide business-to-consumer shipping from the warehouse. “that integrates inbound freight, inventory, and last-mile delivery in a single consolidated service.”

The center is integrated with a range of marketplace and web-shop platforms, as well as multichannel order management and last-mile services across Australia, operating on a “pay-per-use model” that reduces the need for individual investment in logistics by businesses.