DHL Express has released a new white paper highlighting strong growth in e-commerce accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the purchasing power of tech-savvy millennials both globally and in New Zealand.
The study, titled ‘The Ultimate B2B E-commerce Guide: Tradition is out. Digital is in’, predicts a rapid rise in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce in the coming years.
By 2025, 80% of all B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will take place in digital channels, it says.
This will be driven by millennials who are now of an age to be the professional B2B decision-makers.
“Even in times of worldwide shutdowns, globalisation has shown its resilience, fuelled by digitalisation and the power of global trade,” DHL Express chief executive John Pearson says.
“These trends have led to an ever-growing number of consumers to shift their shopping activities online.
“The pandemic has accelerated this development like never before, with a sharp rise in businesses selling their goods in the global marketplace.
“E-commerce and global logistics thus provided the key to unlock local shutdowns, keep economies running and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 for many of our customers,” Pearson says.
Already, millennials account for 73% of all professional B2B purchasing decisions.
As digital natives, their experiences in the busines-to-customer (B2C) sector translate to high expectations when making B2B transactions, pushing companies to invest in digital solutions.
“Over the years, we have seen a steady increase in consumers and businesses shifting their purchases online, but the pandemic has forced many Kiwi businesses into the digital world at a rapid rate,” DHL Express NZ country manager Mark Foy says.
“When we released our results for the 2020 ExportNZ DHL Barometer late last year, it was clear that many business models have changed in light of the pandemic.
“We’re proud that DHL Express continues to deliver on its commitment to all businesses, big or small, to make sure our customers’ shipments are delivered as fast and as safely as possible,” he says.
“Numbers from the most important shopping occasions, namely Black Friday and Cyber Monday, demonstrated the increase in international online e-commerce shipment volumes, as DHL Express New Zealand witnessed a 50% year-on-year rise in shipment volume during the peak months of November and December.
“This unabated surge in volume further underscores the growth in online shopping and demand for cross-border shipping, making it critical that logistics providers remain agile to continuously adapt and respond to consumer needs,” Foy says.
It was not only B2C e-commerce that was growing due to ongoing digitalisation and changed shopping behavior of consumers. In 2019, before the pandemic, global sales on B2B e-commerce sites and marketplaces had already increased by 18.2% to reach US$2.2 trillion, outpacing the market size of the B2C sector.
Through COVID-19 and the resulting acceleration of digitalisation, the global B2B e-commerce volume is estimated to reach US$20.9 trillion by 2027.
In total, the B2C e-commerce volumes within the DHL Express network increased in 2020 by around 40% compared to 2019.
This growth was also reflected in the company’s FY2020 financial results with a total revenue of €19.1 billion (up 11.9% year-on-year) and EBIT of €2.7 billion (up 34.9%). The express division of Deutsche Post DHL Group closed 2020 with the best result in its more than 50-year history.
In 2020, the company delivered 484 million shipments in total for its customers (B2C and B2B) around the globe, around 9% more per day than in 2019.
DHL Express continues to invest annually more than €1 billion in new state-of-the-art facilities around the world to multiply its sorting capacity (up 65% since 2013), hires new employees (up 10,000 year-on-year) and adds new freighter aircraft to its fleet (up 20 units year-on-year).
In this context, DHL Express recently announced the purchase of eight more Boeing B777 wide body freighters and a partnership with Smartlynx Malta to add two Airbus A321 to its fleet.
With these measures, DHL Express ensures that its worldwide customers can benefit from the global E-commerce boom
The company recently announced the purchase of eight more Boeing B777 wide body freighters and a partnership with Smartlynx Malta to add two Airbus A321 to its fleet.
*Click here to read the full whitepaper report.
