DHL eCommerce has begun offering an end-to-end delivery service within Thailand for e-commerce customers to cater to this growing industry.

A fleet of two- and four-wheel vehicles will be capable of delivering to all urban areas in a day, and in two to three days to other locations.

DHL will be upgrading its delivery infrastructure in Thailand for the expansion, with a 3,000m² distribution centre in Bangkok and a network consisting of more than 20 depots throughout the country.

The company intends to more than double the number of depots by 2017 and enlarge the fleet of delivery vehicles.

“Thailand, with its tremendous growth potential, fast e-commerce adoption and high smartphone penetration rates, has been identified as the first Southeast Asian country to launch DHL eCommerce’s domestic delivery service in line with our group’s Strategy 2020,” said Thomas Kipp, CEO of DHL eCommerce [right in photo]. “The Thai e-commerce market is expected to more than triple in size to €3.6 billion [US$3.9 billion] between now and 2020, and with this investment, we are well-positioned to support the growth of e-commerce businesses in Thailand.”

Malcolm Monteiro, CEO of Asia Pacific at DHL eCommerce [left in photo], said that the company sees major opportunities for growth in Thailand because e-commerce still occupies a relatively low market share of the retail market.

“Only 1.7% of total sales in Thailand are obtained from e-commerce, compared to more than 10% in China,” said Monteiro. “Thailand is ranked as one of our top priority markets in Southeast Asia: its expected annual market growth of more than 20% from 2014 to 2020 is likely to be largely driven by significant numbers of SMEs beginning to extend their business models into online marketplaces.”

DHL has had operations in Thailand since 1973, according to the company.