Pitney Bowes extends ecommerce reach with Demandware link-up
Pitney Bowes is continuing to build its presence in the e-commerce cross-border shipping market, announcing a new partnership with the Demandware online retail network. The move will see US online retailers using the Demandware website platform able to easily integrate with Pitney Bowes global shipping services, opening up trade to customers in more than 200 countries around the world.
As well as providing cross-border physical shipping services for e-commerce via its processing centre in Newark, New Jersey, Pitney Bowes offers a range of administrative and brokerage services for US online retailers.
The company told Post&Parcel that the services allow e-commerce providers to deal with customers overseas as easily as domestic customers.
Shipping costs, duty and taxes for specific companies can be calculated so that once a customer clicks on the “confirm” button to agree to a sale, they will not face any further surprise costs to receive their goods.
“For US e-commerce companies this really reduces the complexity of dealing with the global buyer,” explained Megan Higgins-Knislis, Pitney Bowes director of marketing for e-commerce.
“We have developed a pre-built integration module that can eliminate much of the IT bottleneck that exists to provide easy access without the IT spend. E-commerce companies don’t have to do much more than turn it on.”
Massachusetts-based firm Demandware said linking up with Pitney Bowes would mean significant savings for its clients, since integrating with other applications can represent as much as 50% of the overall cost and time needed to set up ecommerce websites.
Jamus Driscoll, vice president of marketing at Demandware, said: “With the availability and integration of Pitney Bowes’s e-commerce solutions, Demandware clients can now implement international solutions in a fraction of the time and money normally required for such integrations.”
Partnerships
Pitney Bowes has been providing global e-commerce services since 2007, initially as a “silent partner” before taking the decision last April to market the services directly.
Since launching its Global E-Commerce Solutions last year, it has been working to expand its reach through partnerships with e-retail platforms including Wipro’s DCxP system and Grand River’s Magento system.
The company said today that more partnerships with other platforms are in the pipeline.
Higgins-Knislis said the link-up with Demandware meant adding a “top tier” ecommerce platform to the Pitney Bowes service to build on the “tremendous” interest in the offering from online retailers in the last 11 months.
She said: “The Demandware partnership has a particular synergy with our services with the premium fashion brands that are using the platform, as the number one item that is being shipped outbound from the US at the moment is apparel.”
Pitney Bowes now deals with hundreds of thousands of e-commerce pieces a year at its processing centre in Newark, one of four international mail services sites the company has in the US, which are fully certified under the US Transport Security Administration’s Cargo Screening Program to cut out shipping delays.
The company also has a mail services facility in the UK, and works with a network of vendors across the world to ship items to more than 200 countries.
Higgins-Knislis said the relatively low value of the US dollar and the rebounding global economy had seen something of a “perfect storm” in the growth of cross-border e-commerce during the last year.
However, she pointed out that e-commerce is also becoming more competitive, with online retailers facing a greater need to provide their customers with a seemless shipping experience.
“E-commerce buyers that are unhappy are likely to vocalize their feelings,” the Pitney Bowes director explained. “We need to be sure that we tailor your services so that the buyer will return, and also that they will recommend you through their social media.”
