GLS expands cross-border FlexDeliveryService to include Belgium
European parcel carrier GLS has expanded its cross-border flexible parcel delivery service FlexDeliveryService to include Belgium as well as Germany and Austria. The service allows customers to ship packages between all three countries in any direction, using a variety of delivery options.
It is already available domestically within 10 European countries.
The expansion across European borders comes as cross-border e-commerce is booming.
Forecasts suggest that the cross-border share of e-commerce will grow from 11% in 2012 to 20% by 2015, GLS said.
Rico Back, the GLS Group chief executive, said: “By expanding our recipient services, we’re supporting our customers in their e-commerce activities, growing both nationally and internationally particularly within the Euro Zone.”
The GLS FlexDeliveryService requires an e-commerce merchant to secure permission from the consumer to share their email address with the parcel carrier. It means that GLS can then email the recipient with an expected delivery time.
The service allows the parcel recipient to switch to a different delivery option while the item is in transit, if for example they cannot be at home to receive a home delivery. Items can be diverted to a different address, delivered on a different day, or made available for collection at a GLS Parcel Shop.
FlexDelivery
Amsterdam-based GLS Group, the European express parcel business of Royal Mail Group, delivers about 404m parcels each year for around 220,000 customers in 37 European countries.
The company has a workforce of about 14,000 employees, a fleet of 18,000 vehicles and 667 depots.
GLS first launched its FlexDeliveryService in Germany in September 2012, rolling it out domestically in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia in 2013, and in the Czech Republic and Poland earlier this year.
The company is currently preparing to launch the delivery notification service in France.