Cross-border logistics is often described in terms of infrastructure, capacity, and technology. For Ove Dokk, International Business Development Manager at GLS, the differentiator is more human: proximity to customers, entrepreneurial thinking, and the ability to make global shipping feel local.

With a career shaped by experience across major logistics organizations, Dokk brings a perspective grounded in both operational scale and customer intimacy — a balance that increasingly defines success in international parcel delivery.

A Career Built Around Customer-Centric Logistics

Dokk’s professional journey in logistics has exposed him to both highly structured global players and more agile operational environments. That contrast has shaped his appreciation for responsiveness and adaptability.

At GLS, he sees a company that still carries an entrepreneurial spirit despite its size. Over the years, the organization has retained what he describes as a startup-like mindset: quick decision-making, openness to experimentation, and close collaboration with customers.

This approach, he notes, is particularly relevant in e-commerce logistics, where growth can be rapid and operational requirements shift constantly.

Global Reach, Delivered Through Local Expertise

One of the themes Dokk consistently emphasizes is the balance between international scale and local execution.

GLS operates a unified cross-border parcel network spanning Europe and North America, with shared operational standards for pickup, sorting, transport, and delivery. Yet the company deliberately runs its international business through strong national teams that understand local regulations, customer expectations, and market realities.

For Dokk, this dual structure is essential:

Global infrastructure ensures consistency and visibility, while local expertise ensures service relevance. Customers benefit from predictable cross-border performance without losing the responsiveness of local support.

Making International Shipping Feel Domestic

A central ambition Dokk highlights is simplifying cross-border logistics so that it resembles domestic shipping in reliability and ease.

Operational resilience plays a key role. GLS maintains tens of thousands of delivery vehicles and thousands of nightly hub-to-hub truck movements, ensuring flexibility when volumes fluctuate or routes shift.

Equally important is network integration. The strengthening of transatlantic connections between GLS Europe and GLS US has enabled more direct parcel flows, competitive transit times, and improved tracking transparency — features traditionally associated with domestic shipping.

From the customer perspective, complexity is reduced, and international shipping becomes less intimidating.

Supporting SMEs Through Growth and Expansion

Dokk speaks frequently about small and medium-sized enterprises, which form a large portion of GLS’ customer base. Many SMEs lack dedicated logistics teams or deep operational resources, making international expansion challenging.

His focus is on removing friction.

Access to a large road-based parcel network, standardized international services, extensive pickup-point infrastructure, and integrated returns solutions allow smaller merchants to scale without building logistics capabilities internally.

He sees logistics not simply as transportation but as an enabler of business growth. When handled correctly, it removes barriers to entering new markets.

Returns, Convenience, and Customer Confidence

Returns management is another area where Dokk sees logistics shaping customer experience directly. In sectors such as fashion, return rates can be significant, and the ease of returns often determines where consumers choose to shop.

Simplified processes — QR code returns, local drop-off points, automated label generation — reduce friction for both consumers and merchants. At the same time, improved visibility helps retailers manage inventory moving back through the supply chain.

He also acknowledges evolving consumer awareness around sustainability, which is gradually influencing return behaviors and logistics strategies alike.

A Global Expansion

GLS continues to expand outside Europe, particularly in the United States, where operations now extend beyond the West Coast into additional states, including Texas. Asia is served through partnerships, allowing European customers access to key markets while maintaining GLS service standards.

GLS also recognizes the evolving needs of its customers and is continuing to expand into value-added services to complement its core parcel offerings by adding fulfilment solutions and freight services across GLS countries to provide end-to-end logistics support. By integrating these services, GLS aims to help merchants manage inventory, streamline order processing, and meet the demands of cross-border e-commerce.

This dual approach—reinforcing the parcel network while expanding into adjacent logistics services—allows GLS to deliver greater value to its customers, supporting their growth and ensuring the flexibility required in today’s fast-moving retail landscape.

Out-of-Home Delivery and Changing Consumer Behavior

Consumer expectations around delivery flexibility are evolving quickly, and Dokk sees out-of-home delivery — parcel shops and lockers — as a defining trend.

Adoption varies widely across Europe. Nordic markets show strong locker usage, while Southern European countries still favor home delivery. GLS is investing heavily in expanding pickup and drop-off networks to accommodate these regional differences.

For Dokk, convenience, efficiency, and environmental considerations all converge in this shift. Consolidated deliveries reduce urban congestion while giving consumers greater control over when and where they receive parcels.

Technology as an Enabler, Not the Headline

While technology underpins most modern logistics operations, Dokk frames it as an enabler rather than a differentiator in itself.

GLS’ API-driven infrastructure allows customers to integrate shipping directly into their systems — automating label creation, pickup booking, returns processing, parcel tracking, and customs data exchange. Crucially, this technological capability is supported by local teams providing IT assistance in customers’ own languages.

This combination of digital integration and human support reflects Dokk’s broader philosophy: technology should simplify logistics, but relationships still matter.

An Entrepreneurial Mindset in a Global Industry

Looking ahead, Dokk believes logistics providers must remain adaptable. Regulatory changes, evolving e-commerce patterns, sustainability concerns, and shifting consumer expectations will continue to reshape cross-border shipping.

What he sees as GLS’ strength is its ability to combine scale with agility — maintaining a global network while preserving the entrepreneurial culture that allows teams to respond quickly to customer needs.

For Dokk personally, the objective remains consistent: helping businesses expand internationally while keeping logistics straightforward, reliable, and close to the customer.

The post SPOTLIGHT ON...Ove Dokk, International Business Development Manager for GLS appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

The Red Sea is currently closed to international maritime traffic, and its consequences for world trade are unpredictable. Houthi attacks on merchant ships blocked this vital shipping route between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal at the end of November, and last week Thursday, the US and UK bombed targets in Yemen in retaliation. 

The Bab-el-Mandeb Strait has become a war zone, shipping lines are forced to bypass the African continent, and freight rates have skyrocketed.

"Six weeks ago, we were in a scenario where there was an oversupply of shipping because demand had contracted. Prices were at $1,500 per container for the Asia-Europe route, and there were fights between shipping lines to get customers. Now, prices have risen by 300%, are around $4,500, and will probably continue to rise. Sending a container from Spain to China costs three times as much," according to Jordi Espín, secretary general of Transprime, the Spanish employers' association of freight forwarders interviewed by the economy and business specialized media 20 Minutos in Spain. 

The Red Sea crisis will affect differently USA and EU

And the citation is dire indeed, for as The Guardian explains, ‘Some 15% of global trade passes through the Red Sea. Houthi attacks might claim to single out shipping bound for Israeli ports, but the reality is that they are indiscriminate and target whoever is passing’ 

For the USA the situation might differ widely from the one in EU. Their immediate consequence was a spike in container prices when shipping from China to USA. But according to multiple media, the shipping prices are being lowered by the carrier companies. 

‘Container rates have soared as high as $10,000 amid the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, but new data shows that ocean carriers are reducing freight rates from China to the U.S. West Coast, contrary to expectations for price increases planned to go into effect next week’ - says CNBC

Going around Africa seems the only option 

"Circumnavigating all of Africa around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea means that, depending on the type of ship and its origin, the route is increased by 15 to 20 days, with an obvious increase in expenditure, for example in fuel, which can be 50%. This will end up having an impact on the consumer and also implies delays in deliveries, which can be particularly sensitive for industry in some sectors, such as wood, rubber or electronics," says Fernando Ibáñez, director of the Master's Degree in Maritime Security and Safety at CISDE.

The Red Sea crisis is also stifling the supply of shipping lines because their ships now take much longer to complete the Asia-Europe route. "The ships are two weeks late in arriving at port and that delay is accumulating, which causes a lower rotation of available ships and that affects the cost," explains Ramón Gascón, coordinator of the Spanish Exporters and Investors Club.

And the forecasts are not at all flattering, according to Espín, who cites data from Sea Intelligence, one of the main global transport analysts: "The availability of supply of shipping companies on January 8 was 40%, there was still oversupply, but their forecasts are that by January 22 we will be at -30%. There are already starting to be availability problems in Asia-Europe traffic and also in the Transpacific".

Gascón stresses that exporting or importing companies are already experiencing delays in deliveries, although he does not fear that there will be a shortage of products in Spain: "For now, problems of shortages are ruled out because supply and demand are balanced, but there may be delays in deliveries. Whoever produces something will be able to deliver it, but it may take a little longer to arrive.

"The punctuality of ships in delivering their goods was around 64% reliable at the end of the year, but in the last three weeks it has dropped four points. That creates great unease in the logistics chain, but after the tsunami that was the pandemic, when there was a disruption of global maritime traffic and panic on a planetary level, shippers know that fear should not spread," says Espín.

Redacted with information provided by 20 Minutos, The Guardian, Forbes 

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Google will display expanded shipping and returns information in search text results for commercial sites. This is done by aggregating content using structured data markup, like how you have marked up your products. 

If you already submit your product information to Google in Merchant Center, they will use your Merchant Center shipping and returns data in the same way.

The company also added new reports to Search Console. It aims to make it easier to know when your products need more information. 

This will allow you to monitor and correct structured data related to these e-commerce features. 

If your products need shipping and return information or if shipping and return information was added incorrectly, you will receive warnings in the merchant listings report and through email notifications.

The key will be Google Merchant Center

Google Merchant Center is a Google tool that serves to enter data from an online store and be able to advertise in Google Shopping, among other services.

Still, the Merchant Center implementation, although vital for the future ‘metaverse mega global marketplace’ is far from perfect. The tool has a few years available, yet Google keeps finding bugs and issues with it. The most recent is a bug that is directly affecting Google Ads campaigns. 

Two days ago, Google announced that was ‘actively looking’ into an issue in Merchant Center where some advertisers may see a “Circumventing systems” message in their ads.

These glitches result in ad disapprovals and are a big deal for impacted people. It can cause a loss in revenue or other types of conversion metrics. 

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H&M, a clothing retailer with shops present in over 70 countries globally, decided that free shipping is unsustainable for profitability. In sixteen of the countries that the retailer operates in, H&M has introduced a loyalty membership. However, they have now started introducing a minimum order amount for their members if they want free shipping.

The H&M Membership programme has two levels, basic- and plus-member. Based on how many points a customer has earned during the past year, they will be split up in either one of them. In the UK, basic members will have to spend at least £20 in order to receive free shipping (or free click and collect). In Germany (€22) and Sweden (200 Swedish Crowns), this minimum order level is equivalent.

Must have for customer experience

Free shipping used to be a must-have customer experience for retailers, not only on their own platforms but on marketplaces as well. However, profits are tightening and costs are continuously increasing for retailers. It is therefore very likely that other sellers and brands will follow H&M by limiting free shipping (either economy or express) and start tying minimum sizes to orders.

The post H&M to limit free shipping because of sustainability appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

“China continues to have the greatest impact on the growing shipping market,” said Lila Snyder, President, Commerce Services at Pitney Bowes. “Globally, e-commerce continues to drive growth in all regions. Global e-commerce giants continue to raise the bar, resetting customer expectations when it comes to shipping. As retailers and marketplaces look to cross-border commerce to drive growth, carriers must create efficient, seamless routes to market.” What can be seen is that China’s Parcel Volume triples the United States’: China (40.1 billion), the United States (11.9 billion). Japan (9.6 billion) completes the top three countries for parcel shipping volume in 2017. China’s parcel shipments represent 53% of the total shipments in the Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index.

The United States ranks highest in parcel shipping revenue at $107 billion, generating 38 percent of the total revenue of the 13 countries. China ($73 billion) and Japan ($25 billion) follow.

Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index also predicted that global shipping volume will surpass 100 billion parcels in 2020 in aggregate across the 13 countries reviewed: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the USA.

The post Global shipping volumes: $279 billion revenue in 2017 appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.