Express and logistics company DHL announced yesterday that The Talbots Inc., a specialty retailer and e-tailer of women's apparel, shoes and accessories, chose DHL's DHL@home business-to-consumer delivery service for a substantial portion of its U.S. print and online catalog sales.
Talbots, Hingham, MA, operates 1,000 stores in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Its catalog operation expects to circulate about 47 million catalogs worldwide in fiscal 2004.
DHL@home is a service DHL offers through a partnership with the U.S. Postal Service. DHL picks up, sorts and delivers parcel shipments via its network to the postal facility nearest the consumer, and the USPS performs the last part of the delivery process. DHL@home offers delivery options of two to four or two to seven days.
Talbots identified a chance to reduce home delivery times on ground shipments from its distribution center in Lakeville, MA, to the West Coast from six days to four, DHL said. Talbots makes 10,000 shipments daily.
DHL, Plantation, FL, created a customized program for Talbots that includes specialized customer service and proactive account monitoring.
The new relationship between DHL and Talbots follows several initiatives at DHL, including Wednesday's announcement that it will add thousands of drop boxes to its network starting this month as part of a program expected to raise the number of DHL drop box locations nationwide to 32,000 by the end of 2005.
The expansion of DHL's street-level footprint is expected to increase the number of DHL customer access points to 37,000 in the United States, including 5,300 retail locations.
