DHL eCommerce Review

DHL eCommerce is focused on a global world. As consumers are pushing for more options, global ecommerce spending rose 38% in the first quarter of 2021 to $876 billion.¹ These customers are buying global products from local businesses, which means you need to be ready to procure goods and ship them around the world. We’re seeing that businesses today need to have a worldwide supply chain and appeal to customers by shipping everywhere.

The big question moving forward is: can your business reach customers and suppliers globally and fulfill their product needs? DHL eCommerce can do that, making it one of the best options on the market for shipping, tracking, and logistics.

Headquartered in Germany, and with offices in the US, Singapore, and India, DHL is tailor-made for global fulfillment and logistics. Unlike other major shipping providers, like UPS and FedEx, DHL eCommerce (formerly DHL Global Mail) is built for business. As a business customer, you’ll work with DHL on parcel shipment, tracking, delivery, and return solutions for domestic and international shipments.

DHL eCommerce is not only for shipping. Its logistics and fulfillment services connect shipping back to your ecommerce site so that orders are synched and automated. With DHL eCommerce, you don’t have to worry about sending orders to DHL— its flexible order management system helps generate shipping labels and merchandise fulfillment from warehouses across the country and the globe.

Around the world, over a billion parcels make the trek from warehouses to front doors each year. To ensure each customer receives their package, DHL eCommerce works with certified specialists in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. This is a service that works for sole proprietors and entrepreneurs, small businesses, and large corporations alike. With an emphasis on aiding supply chain logistics and maintaining your business’s level of customer service, DHL eCommerce partners with you for global fulfillment and parcel delivery.

DHL is not for the “regular” small business. Businesses will be asked to prove that they have shipped 100 packages per day for at least 3 months, and all businesses must meet the minimum shipping requirement.

There are eight different plans—three for international shipping and five for domestic shipments. Prices for all plans are available upon request and after submitting an application with DHL eCommerce.

Flexible pick-up times, electronic invoicing, and online shipping tools make DHL the best partner for international shipping. The customer web portal allows you to manage and track shipments through an integrated platform, while DHL’s global group of experts make it easy to ship to over 220 countries and territories.

In the US, DHL partners with the US Postal Service (USPS) for expedited shipping, allowing your business to reach more than 154 million addresses 6 days a week. These eight plan options offer flexibility for different customers and orders, empowering your business to expand its reach and find new customers worldwide.

There’s a lot to like about DHL eCommerce, but it's important to know whether it's the best shipping option for you. Examining the company’s strengths and weaknesses can help you figure that out!

As a global shipping provider, DHL excels with parcel delivery and shipping solutions. Its global shipping and fulfillment network helps you send packages domestically and around the world via DHL shipping. And with hubs in Europe, Asia, and North America, DHL has supply chain logistics figured out so that every delivery reaches your customer. DHL ensures your package’s international shipment to over 220 countries, while its final delivery partnership with the USPS ensures your DHL package can reach 154 million US addresses.

Shipment tracking ensures that your customer receives your package, no matter where in the world they are located. Every DHL parcel comes with a tracking number for you and the customer to easily track its shipment. If your package is transferred to another courier for final delivery in the destination country, DHL will make sure you have a tracking number. With DHL eCommerce tracking, you will have global end-to-end tracking to follow shipment status as it goes to your customer.

For any business owner, keeping track of orders, shipments, deliveries, and returns is required to process profit and revenue. With an easy-to-use web portal, DHL eCommerce collects all that information for you. The online web portal makes it a breeze to view shipment data and reports, print labels and tracking numbers, access invoices and shipping rates, view shipment delay warnings, and create return labels. All of this is part of the platform, which allows you to focus on running your business while DHL handles the logistics.

With DHL eCommerce, you get an unparalleled global reach with some fantastic features to make shipping, logistics, and returns as easy as can be. There are six key components to this service that elevate it above the competition. Let’s take a look.

The flexible order management system allows you to keep track of shipping and returns with the ability to easily integrate your ecommerce orders for simple label generation. Depending on your shipment volume, you are set up with a portal to follow your orders and check costs.

Using the DHL eCommerce web portal also allows you to print labels and create tracking numbers, check invoices and shipment rates, keep an eye on delivery performance and delays, schedule pickups and create return labels, and view shipment data and reports. This feature is hugely important for keeping your shipping logistics organized and staying up to date on all deliveries.

Shipping is where DHL eCommerce excels. With affordable cross-border shipping and easy domestic delivery, your packages will consistently arrive in less than two weeks internationally and eight days domestically. International shipping includes returns and customs clearance along with a network of parcel drop-off and pick-up locations.

DHL delivers six days per week and offers multiple delivery options—including a green option with carbon offsets for your shipments! There are standard plans, but DHL is flexible and will work with your business’s needs, including expedited shipping processes and reduced postage costs.

In the US, DHL eCommerce helps schedule deliveries and offers same or next-day delivery in certain areas. Depending on the package shipment option you choose, parcels can arrive the next day, in two days, or in three days. Combine that with ground shipping across the country in under four days, and you have easy domestic delivery options for your business.

DHL moves over a billion parcels around the world each year. And with delivery options six days a week, DHL eCommerce is focused on getting your packages to customers as soon as possible.

It’s able to get these packages to customers on time because it’s focused on delivery options that benefit the consumer. With same-day or next-day delivery, DHL prioritizes your products. B2C customs clearance ensures there aren’t any delays for cross-border shipments, and multiple delivery options help customers choose the best option for them at checkout.

DHL eCommerce integrates with your ecommerce platform so that the shipping options—provided by DHL—are known upfront at customer checkout. These customer-focused options are passed on to you as well. As a DHL eCommerce customer, your business benefits from multiple options for deliveries and a wide range of shipping times.

DHL also has distribution centers and warehouses to bring merchandise closer to your customers and shorten your delivery times. This option—DHL Fulfillment—is a great shipping solution for high-volume businesses. DHL Fulfillment allows you to ship merchandise to a fulfillment warehouse where it is stored until ordered by a customer. This cuts down the shipment’s transit time and makes it easy for DHL to quickly fulfill orders.

It also allows you to outsource the fulfillment side of things and cuts down on the stock that you have on hand. If you are primarily shipping products to customers, then this is a great option. With warehouses across the US, merchandise moves closer to customers and shortens delivery times providing a great shipping solution that is customer forward.

Every international and domestic shipping option comes with end-to-end tracking. This is a key feature for DHL eCommerce. All of your shipments come with a tracking number that you can pass on to the customer. The comprehensive shipment tracking lets you know where the parcel is at every step of its journey.

You are also able to integrate your shipping features with email and receive text tracking updates, allowing you to stay up to date until the shipment arrives at your customer’s doorstep. In today’s globally connected and online world, tracking is important for your business and to build customer trust.

DHL eCommerce integrates with over a dozen ecommerce IT systems, including Shopify and WooCommerce. These plug-ins, extensions, and integrations—also known as third-party vendor or 3PV solutions—help your business run by pulling order information and organizing label information for shipping.

For example, these integrations allow you to pull order information from Amazon and eBay, giving you a centralized view of the information in the DHL app so that you know what has been ordered and can be shipped.

There is also a barcoding option and label generation to make shipment as seamless as possible. The integrations make your life easier so that you can focus on your business without worrying about falling behind.

DHL is an international package delivery service founded in San Francisco and now based out of Bonn, Germany. It is a division of Deutsche Post (DP DHL) and delivers over 1.6 billion parcels per year. DHL has headquarters in Germany, the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China. It operates with the USPS but is a direct competitor of FedEx, UPS, and the Royal Mail. The company ships to over 220 countries and has begun using electric vehicles along with offsetting the carbon emissions from its deliveries to reach zero emissions by 2050.

DHL delivers almost everything! But there are some restrictions, including live animals, hunting trophies, illegal substances, cash, precious stones, illegal goods, counterfeit goods, guns, and explosives, which cannot be shipped. Dangerous goods and lithium batteries have certain restrictions placed on them, but otherwise, you can ship them.

DHL will help with customs clearances for international packages, but it is important to remember that shipping requirements may vary from destination to destination. However you are planning to send retail goods from your business, then DHL will make sure it gets there.

Using DHL eCommerce to deliver your packages ensures that all your international shipments will take no more than 14 days of transit and domestic shipments only need 8 days of transit or less.

It all depends on what plan you are using to ship your products. Expedited Max is the fastest available domestic shipment option from DHL, while Expedited gets your domestic shipments there in five days or less. Ground shipping is the slowest method of domestic delivery. Internationally, most parcels are in transit for eight days or less.  If shipping outside of Canada or Europe, it may take up to two weeks.

DHL delivers all of its own .

In the US, DHL works with the USPS for . The company still has distribution centers around the country, which makes shipping easy around the country.

Looking internationally, Deutsche Post and DHL Aviation own eight airlines to deliver to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central America, and South America. They also have stakes in or contracts with seven other airlines, which are in Germany, Canada, Australia, the US, and South Africa. A leading courier and parcel delivery company, DHL aviation has 189 aircrafts in its fleet and works with 50 international airline operators.

DHL is the only provider allowed to ship for DHL eCommerce with the USPS completing final-mile delivery for many US shipments. Outside of the US, DHL does all of its own deliveries.

Yes! For domestic shipments, DHL has partnered with the United States Postal Service (USPS) as the exclusive carrier of packages to the last mile. What this means is that in certain locations, DHL will hand off a package to the USPS for final delivery.

On a regular basis, the Postal Service delivers packages to over 161 million addresses in every state, city, and town of the United States. By partnering with the USPS, DHL is leveraging that expertise to ensure packages get delivered to the right place and on time.

DHL eCommerce excels at using its international supply chain logistics to ship and track your packages from your business or warehouse to the customer’s door. Its order management system syncs to your ecommerce orders to ensure every package is shipping, and an easy-to-use web portal helps you find tracking numbers and follow delivery.

DHL uses its network to move packages internationally in under 14 days and domestically under 8 days, and works with you for customs clearance for international packages. DHL eCommerce utilizes its global reach and expertise to help your business expand internationally and domestically.

If your business has high-volume shipping—globally or domestically—then DHL eCommerce is the right move for you. It will help you expand your reach while ensuring packages get delivered on time. It’s a great international parcel delivery service that has fantastic reach and a great domestic partnership with the USPS. If you meet the delivery requirements, then you can’t go wrong with DHL eCommerce.

If DHL eCommerce doesn’t seem like the right fit, and you’re looking for something different, be sure to check out our top order fulfillment picks.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.