DHL wants to shake up Swiss online retail and attacks Swiss Post head-on
The German parcel and express mail service DHL wants to attack the Swiss Post and is planning its own network in this country with 1,000 parcel pick-up points in Spar supermarkets, among other places.
For this purpose, the Deutsche Post subsidiary has founded a new Swiss company, writes the SonntagsZeitung. From mid-September, DHL intends to deliver to all private addresses in the country. DHL wants to shake up online retailing and undercut Swiss Post on prices with its new offerings. Until now, DHL has mainly limited itself to delivering items from abroad to Switzerland. Now it wants to challenge the market leader Swiss Post for market share in Swiss domestic shipping as well.
"We will offer customers a cost advantage over the competition for a comparable service," Günter Birnstingl, head of the Swiss company, told the newspaper. In metropolitan areas, DHL plans to offer delivery on Saturdays and until 8 p.m. at no extra charge.
The new price competition pleases the mail order companies
This should make mail-order companies particularly happy, because Deutsche Post charges them extra for this service, which they have often passed on to customers in the past. According to DHL, parcel shipping for private individuals will also become cheaper in several cases. Although the mail order companies are satisfied with the services provided by the Post, any cost relief comes in handy for them in their fight against foreign giants such as Amazon, Zalando or Aliexpress. For a long time, they have wanted an additional relevant parcel delivery company that would force competition within Switzerland, says Patrick Kessler, president of the Association of the Swiss Mail Order Industry, to the SonntagsZeitung.
Parcel shipping in Switzerland is dominated by Swiss Post. The yellow giant delivers eight out of ten parcels. Last year, the figure was 130 million. In contrast to other business areas, parcel shipping is a bright spot and extremely lucrative thanks to booming online trade.
Swiss are patriotic when it comes to shopping
There are good reasons why DHL is pushing into the Swiss market: Online trade is not only becoming increasingly important and popular, but is also dominated by domestic providers in this country - despite strong foreign competition. "The Swiss are much more patriotic when it comes to shopping than, say, the Austrians or the Germans," analyzes Günter Birnstingl, head of DHL Parcel Switzerland, in an interview with the SonntagsZeitung.
The market leader by far is the Migros subsidiary Digitec Galaxus, followed in sixth place by Coop with Microspot.ch. However, this is set to change; Coop wants to make up ground and is planning an offensive, including a new logistics center. The signs are good that the Swiss providers will be able to expand their market power and thus continue to drive domestic parcel shipping. Birnstingl anticipates annual growth in Swiss online retailing in the double-digit percentage range. (hae)
