Scaling Cross-Border Fulfillment Globally – Answers from the even Webinar with DHL

In a nutshell: One product, one Vendor, 150 countries in five years. What sounds like a glossy slide deck was walked through by Jean-Paul Enyuka from DHL Supply Chain in the even Webinar, using a real case study: how a consumer electronics brand globalized its logistics step by step from the US – and what it actually takes to make that work. No big bang, no chaos, but an iterative build on a standardized system. For anyone who still thinks cross-border fulfillment is primarily a matter of carrier selection: this conversation shows it is, above all, a question of architecture.

DHL isn't just DHL – in our pre-call I learned there are roughly 900 subsidiaries. Which one are you from, and what area are we talking about today?

Jean-Paul: I come from DHL Supply Chain – that's the contract logistics division of DHL Group. Everyone knows DHL as a parcel delivery company, but DHL is also active in warehousing, contract logistics, and freight forwarding. I'm specifically responsible for the DHL Fulfillment Network product, covering Germany and Austria.

The DHL Fulfillment Network is a standardized plug-and-play Solution designed specifically for e-commerce retailers and D2C brands. There's a standard interface that connects quickly and easily to common shop platforms. What sets the network apart: we are present in all relevant markets with a unified system – processes and quality are identical whether you're in Spain, Japan, or Germany.

We want to talk about a case study today. Let's start with the basics: what is it about, and what was your customer's starting point?

Jean-Paul: Five years ago, a customer came to us wanting to launch a new product in the premium consumer electronics segment. At first, they were based in the US and were looking for a 3PL partner to support their logistics. From the very beginning, they made it clear that their goal was a global rollout – they were starting in the US but wanted to expand worldwide. And the customer had set themselves a target: anyone who buys something on their platform should receive it within 48 hours. That was essentially the challenge.

K5 was in Berlin this week and everyone is talking about customer experience. You've already mentioned that people should have a consistent customer experience. What actually defines that at the end of the day? As a brand, it often comes down to: you unbox something and find it's beautifully packaged and premium quality. But what is customer experience from your perspective?

Jean-Paul: From our perspective, customer experience means the customer receives the right goods at the right time in the right place. Classically, you'd call it fulfilling the 7 Rs. But the reality is: we as a fulfillment service provider are now also part of the brand experience. Factors like delivery times, tracking, returns, delivery quality – whether a package arrives undamaged – all shape brand perception, alongside product quality and marketing. Fulfillment and delivery are the most visible interaction a customer has with a brand. That's why they contribute enormously to customer experience.

A consistent customer experience means for us: the brands that work with us know exactly what service level they get here in Germany – and they can expect that same level in Japan. No deviations, no loss of quality.

You said the customer started in the US but had global ambitions. How much effort is involved – do you just flip a switch and start operating in Europe and other parts of the world the day after tomorrow? Is it that simple, or is there quite a bit more to it?

Jean-Paul: There's definitely a lot more to it. But since we have a standardized system and had already implemented the product in America, what followed was essentially a copy-and-paste Solution. We simply reproduced and replicated the Solutions we had in America for Germany. That typically took four to six weeks.

What does the customer need to bring to the table? It's crucial to know which products they want to offer in that market, and to have clean data – master customer data. That's a very important starting point. From there, we can implement seamlessly. And they need to think about which shop system they're using and then handle the interface integration. The biggest block is always IT.

This week we've also heard about other approaches where you ship from one country to another and it still works. When does distributed fulfillment actually make sense? Is it purely a speed issue?

Jean-Paul: It's no longer just a speed issue – there are so many reasons to go international. Some want to be closer to the customer, to ensure local proximity. But there are also regulatory aspects – entering a country where the government expects you to have a local presence. There can also be marketplace requirements – these platforms are growing ever larger and, for example, may require a local returns center. So you can't say it's just about delivery time. It's more a combination of many factors: local customer proximity, technical integration, regulatory requirements.

In our specific case, the trigger for going global was partly regulatory, but on the other hand, time to market was a very, very important factor for our customer. It was a new product they had established in America, and they felt they had to be the first to internationalize in order to maintain their lead over competitors. That combination is what drove their decision to go global.

Looking at the example again – you started in the US, expanded into various countries, and by now there are quite a few. If I remember correctly, it was over 100? Honestly, that almost sounds too easy. Do you do it country by country, clustered by region?

Jean-Paul: 150, actually – within five years, so from zero to 150 countries. But of course you don't just do that casually in a short time; there's a lot of planning and organization behind it. We didn't implement everything as a big bang – the customer entered each market iteratively. They started in America, then moved to Europe – first setting up in the German market. They then noticed they were shipping to neighboring countries from Germany, and at some point defined their own threshold: from a certain volume, it makes sense to have another fulfillment center on the ground to reduce transport costs.

Why does it work this way? At DHL, we've standardized our processes and products to the point where our implementation approach is standardized as well. And so: the more often we've carried out these activities, the faster it goes thanks to the learning effect.

For the customer, this is a real advantage: they serve 150 markets and can pull all their figures, data, and facts from a single system to run their business. That gives them peace of mind and lets them focus entirely on other activities – developing their product further – instead of dealing with different systems for logistics management.

That's an example that is probably also quite large-scale even within your world