Case Study: DHL achieves rapid supplier onboarding and 21,000 monthly e-invoices with Tradeshift

How DHL made shift happen

DHL, the world’s largest international courier and logistics company, faced a major invoicing challenge after years of expansion and multiple ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards) with differing templates. Processing roughly 10 million invoices a year was inefficient, prior provider adoption stalled at ~30% and suppliers—especially smaller ones—pushed back because they had to pay to send invoices, making onboarding laborious and inconsistent across countries.

DHL moved to Tradeshift’s open, multi-format e-invoicing platform—free for suppliers—with automated onboarding campaigns, validation rules, CloudScan for PDF/paper conversion, and a dedicated CSM plus “white‑glove” support for top vendors. The result: 2,500 suppliers onboarded (vs. an original scope of 1,500), about 50% activation within eight months, 21,000 e-invoices processed per month, a 10% month‑over‑month increase in received documents, and rollout across 127 branches in 30 countries.

DHL

Steven Verhasselt

Program-Manager, GBS Finance & HR