In its third year, the E-tailers’ Almanac outlines tendencies and trends seen over the last year
E-tailers continue diversifying their carriers, accommodating consumers’ changing buying behaviors and demanding greater predictability
Weston, FL, Feb. 17, 2022 – DHL eCommerce Solutions, a division of the world’s leading logistics company, Deutsche Post DHL (DPDHL) Group, has launched the 2022 E-tailers’ Almanac. The E-tailers’ Almanac aims to help online merchants plan their shipments and identify overarching trends. Some of the trends discovered this year are new, and others are a continuation of what the ecommerce sector in the U.S. has experienced in the last couple of years.
The four overarching trends are based on DHL eCommerce Solutions U.S. customer feedback and lightweight parcel industry developments in the last year.
The four market trends are as follows:
Multi-carrier approach continues carrying weight: Since the start of the pandemic, online merchants have not generally remained loyal to one carrier for their shipping needs. This multi-carrier approach is a trend that seems like it’s here to stay, except that online merchants now have more last mile carriers entering the market to choose from. Some e-tailers are willing to hedge their bets on new small or regional carriers to ensure they have flexibility to ship their goods and have more options to face the hurdle of capacity constraints in the market.
Consumers’ buying habits continue transforming: At the end of 2021, some online merchants saw customers becoming more flexible in their selection of online items. With the fear of reported possible supply chain delays, online retailers found some consumers foregoing their first choice of items for other colors or styles when they were out of stock. Additionally, more consumers are bundling their purchases, so they arrive in one box or package. As a result, some lightweight logistics operators found an increase in more oversized multi-dimensional items, in particular, during the holiday peak season. Shipping companies use a dimensional weight (DIM weight) pricing technique based on the package’s length, width and height. Thus, package size and materials should be an essential consideration for e-tailers.
Real-time predictability is the way forward: For e-tailers having the ability to predict and connect their supply chain and optimize data to help them in real-time decision making is becoming a must when working with a logistics operator. Online merchants are not only demanding fast shipping times, but the ability to identify bottlenecks and simulate ‘what-if’ scenarios to help mitigate any issues with their shipping solution. As a result, many logistics operators are ramping up and investing in their predictive analytics and real-time notification capabilities for a more seamless and transparent customer experience.
Forecasting to be exact: As the world enters into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, much has been learned, and for e-tailers, shipping tendencies and benchmarks can be gleaned from the past year. For some merchants, their 2021 forecasting and predictions proved to be an inexact science when it came to the volume they were shipping. Logistics operator partners plan their distribution center capacity, personnel, air and land transport capacity based on their customers’ forecasting, and therefore accuracy is key.
E-tailer volume forecasting in 2022 can still be a challenge because of all the economic uncertainties and the labor shortage the U.S. continues to face. For e-tailers to successfully navigate the year and the 2022 holiday peak season, they must analyze their shipping history and volumes. They should also ensure all documents and electronic data files are accurately prepared, labels are correctly placed on packages to minimize shipping delays, and all major holidays and closures are planned for in advance.
The E-tailers’ Almanac offers new and experienced online merchants a calendar of the most important 2022 ecommerce dates to consider when planning their promotions and shipments.
“In its third edition, the E-tailers’ Almanac has found that many of the trends that started since the pandemic have continued and other topics have arisen that have helped us at DHL eCommerce Solutions plan better for the year ahead,” said Lee Spratt, CEO, DHL eCommerce Solutions, Americas. “We hope that these trends may spur our customers and potential customers to forge stronger relationships with us to help navigate together the ever-changing ecommerce industry.”