Asendia: From Startup to Global E-Commerce Player

Asendia, a joint venture of Swiss Post and France’s ‘La Poste’, has developed very well in recent years. In e-commerce, Asendia has established itself strongly and is installed in many online shops. The company operates worldwide and employs over 1,500 people.

(Bern) Every second, a new pair of sneakers or a fashionable piece of clothing is ordered across borders from an online shop. The likelihood is high that the ordering process and international shipping are handled by Asendia – a company in which Swiss Post has been involved for eight years. Why is that?

Asendia is a joint venture of Swiss Post and the French ‘La Poste’. It was founded in 2012. Asendia operates in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand with over 1,500 employees – and has 25 locations in 15 countries. Asendia offers worldwide and cross-border shipping solutions for business customers, including for shipping retailers. For these, Asendia takes care of the goods shipping, international distribution of advertising mail, newspapers, and magazines, as well as business mail. The company knows the postal systems of the respective countries inside out and can rely on the networks of postal and parcel service providers around the world.

Since 2012, Asendia has established new country subsidiaries, expanded its presence in the USA and the UK, and invested in successful e-commerce companies eShopWorld and Anchanto.

Asendia Facilitates Cross-Border Trade

Cross-border online trade is growing strongly worldwide and across almost all product groups. Smaller and medium-sized enterprises are increasingly trying to penetrate new markets. For example, if an online retailer wants to deliver to Brazil, they must familiarize themselves with the peculiarities of this market: payment habits, specific customs regulations, and return habits are success factors for smooth international sales. International shipping retailers can benefit from a comprehensive overall offering, the experience, and knowledge of Asendia. Asendia can handle all logistics for them – including import, customs clearance, and final delivery. Thus, Asendia connects the world and enables cross-border shopping worldwide – even for customers in Switzerland.

That is why Asendia fits into the portfolio of Swiss Post today and in the future. This particularly benefits Swiss export and recipient customers. The Post recognized the potential of online trade years ago and has aligned its logistics business accordingly. Cross-border small goods and online business are an important economic success factor for Swiss Post.

Import Shipments to Switzerland: The Important Role of Asendia

Around 100,000 small goods shipments from abroad arrive daily – also thanks to Asendia – via Zurich and Geneva airports to the centers of Swiss Post. Hundreds of containers with mailbags are unloaded from the planes, transported, cleared through customs, and delivered. Over three-quarters of small goods shipments come from the Asian region.

Online Trade Boom During the Corona Crisis

Due to the boom in online trade caused by the coronavirus, the volume of small goods shipments in Europe increased by a full 10 percent during the Corona crisis, both in imports and exports. During this time, there was a real state of emergency in cross-border mail traffic. Before the Corona crisis, Asendia primarily used passenger planes to transport shipments. After airlines had almost completely suspended passenger flights, Asendia gradually established a ‘freight network’ with chartered planes in collaboration with partners. The business figures of Asendia show for the last weeks and months that the company is successfully maintaining itself in a global growth market and is even growing strongly – despite the worldwide lockdown measures.

Three Strategic Questions to Ueli Hurni, Chairman of the Board of Asendia
 
Mr. Hurni, what strategy is Asendia pursuing? Asendia wants to grow. To this end, it has transformed from a ‘mail-heavy’ postal company into an e-commerce company and today generates 80 percent of its revenue in this business. Asendia invested in the startup eShopWorld in 2014 – today eShopWorld operates the e-commerce platform for Nike, Max Mara, Victoria’s Secret, Tarte, Kerin, and American Eagle. eShopWorld is currently growing very strongly. When Asendia was founded in 2012, it had a revenue of around 450 million euros. In the meantime, Asendia has not only crossed the magical threshold of 1 billion euros in revenue but is generating a revenue of 1.5 billion euros this year.
 
How does Asendia fit into the new strategy of the Post, the ‘Post of Tomorrow’? Asendia fits excellently into the new Post strategy, as the Post wants to not only maintain its long-standing core business in Switzerland but also develop it internationally. This also strengthens imports into Switzerland and, in the long term, the export business. In addition, we are tapping into considerable synergy potential with our partner, the French ‘La Poste’.
 
How should Asendia continue to develop in the near future? It is gratifying to see how Asendia has developed in recent years. With a revenue of significantly more than 1 billion euros, Asendia is one of the world’s leading companies in international e-commerce. We will consistently pursue the growth course in the upcoming strategy period 2020–2023.

Photo: © Swiss Post
www.asendia.ch    www.post.ch