DHL Express Portugal

: B2B market analysis of the international road delivery service

Abstract

DHL Express, an international express market reference, registers a low market share on its international road delivery service, DHL Economy Select. This dissertation aims to understand what can be implemented by the client company to battle this situation and be among the top players in the service, particularly packages delivery. This research aims to characterize the DHL Express offer alongside its main competitors, striving to understand how similar DHL Express’s service offer is. The main topics covered are service, geographical coverage, delivery times and price, since they were identified among the client’s primary decision factors. The research starts by reviewing related literature and analyses both primary sources of data – interviews to employees and clients of the client company –, and secondary sources – company’s services, shipping rates, geographical coverage and corresponding delivery times. This research analysis comprised interviews coding and direct comparison of the topics mentioned. The analysis revealed that DHL Express offer to be uncompetitive. Indeed, competitors offer lower prices, accept larger packages, and charge less for oversize packages and do not restrict service access to clients contracting another service. Additionally, this research offers the client company a sensitivity analysis of its base rates, revealing the competitor’s minimum discount rate needed to match its standard business proposals. To conclude, an interdependent set of recommendations was presented to the client company to increase its service competitiveness, which results in a higher market share.

Date of Award	25 Jan 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Omar El Nayal (Supervisor) & Rute Xavier (Co-Supervisor)