Geodis Group reports 10-percent rise in e-commerce orders

French logistics giant Geodis Group shipped 2.5 million orders in the U.S. over the five-day shopping period from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, the company said Wednesday.

That volume marked a 10-percent year-over-year increase in e-commerce orders across the company's 38 million square feet of U.S. warehouse space and forced it to implement increased collaboration between its warehouse operations and technology support teams, Geodis said.

"Consumers' expectations are higher than ever when ordering goods online, and it becomes more intense during the holidays," Mike Honious, chief operating officer for Geodis' U.S. Contract Logistics Line of Business, said in a release. "When fulfilling orders for top retailers and e-tailers, it is imperative our operations and technology teams perform collaboratively to our peak plans to ensure we execute at the highest level."

The rapid growth echoes a forecast by the National Retail Federation (NRF) that this year's holiday sales will increase 3.6 percent, significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.5 percent, Geodis said. A good portion of that overall growth is driven by non-store sales (from online shopping), which are expected to post an even faster jump of 7 to 10 percent, according to NRF.

One of Europe's top-five logistics companies, Geodis has been aggressively expanding its U.S. footprint. In 2015, the company acquired Brenéwood, Tenn.-based third-party logistics provider (3PL) Ozburn-Hessey Logistics LLC (OHL) for a reported $800 million as part of a strategy to grow its contract logistics, freight forwarding, and 3PL services.