Many online retailers who sell in to the German market face a sharp increase in their order fulfilment costs following the recent announcement by Amazon that it will charge clients a fulfilment fee of €0.25 for every unit shipped from its Germany-based fulfilment centres.
The move is designed to encourage Amazon’s clients to switch inventory from the company’s German warehouses to Amazon facilities in Poland and Czech Republic. The fee will not apply to shipments to Germany from Poland and Czech Republic-based stores.
“Amazon appears to have adopted the ‘stick’ rather than the ‘carrot’ method as the best way to persuade merchants who currently hold inventory in Germany to move their stock to Poland and the Czech Republic,” comments Mark Elward (pictured), DK Fulfilment’s (DKF) managing director.
“Few businesses have shaken up the retail sector as dramatically as Amazon and in less than two decades the company has proved itself to be highly efficient, but this would appear to be an interesting approach to customer relationship management!” he adds.
DK Fulfilment operates its own fulfilment centre in Germany. Situated between Frankfurt and Cologne, it is a 200,000 sq ft multi-user facility from where an extensive range of storage, pick, pack and despatch and returns management processes are undertaken for clients who store products as diverse as commercial engine parts and iPhone covers.
“DKF would be very pleased to hear from any merchants who would prefer orders for the German market to be fulfilled from a Germany-based centre,” says Mark Elward.
