Online sales boom driving local logistics firms

Heather McIlvaine

3rd Aug 2018

Local logistics firms are reaping the benefits of Australia’s e-commerce growth, hiring industry veterans and expanding into new areas.

Shippit, a logistics startup that helps retailers find the most efficient way to move goods through the supply chain, recently appointed Shannon Ingrey, general manager of Oracle + Bronto APAC, as chief revenue officer to help the business to scale going forward.

Ingrey is just the latest new hire for the startup, which has grown its team 2.5 times and increased revenue threefold in the last 12 months.

Shippit has also added new a new solution that will help retailers manage returns and is preparing to launch in New Zealand and South East Asia in a matter of days.

“We’ve been pretty busy trying to keep our momentum going and keep up with demand,” Shippit co-founder and co-CEO Rob Hango-Zada told Internet Retailing.

This week also saw Sendle, a shipping startup targeting small and medium businesses, bring on board Eva Ross, previously the head of marketing and strategy operations for Airbnb in APAC, as its new chief marketing officer.

It recently announced a two-day delivery guarantee in partnership with Ebay and switched on international shipping last year.

New opportunities for growth

Hango-Zada said Shippit’s expansion is being driven by the pace of growth in the broader e-commerce industry, which he said is faster than analysts have predicted.

“Customer behaviour is changing so fast. If you look at Uber Eats, you can go from thinking you want a cheeseburger to having it delivered in 30 minutes. Retail has been slow to the mark, but the customer expectation [for speed and convenience] is there,” he said.

Another area of growth for Shippit is the burgeoning omnichannel space, with an increasing number of bricks-and-mortar stores considering in-store fulfilment to facilitate faster delivery.

Shippit recently partnered with Cue on a point-of-sale [POS] integration that enables the fashion retailer to print shipping labels on receipts, which is expected to save Cue tens of thousands of dollars per year.

“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in the blend of online and offline retail,” Hango-Zada said.

“We’re seeing a lot of partnerships with POS software to enable ship-from-store. That is really the next big wave of innovation you’ll see from Shippit.”

According to Hango-Zada, there are “a few large customers” waiting in the wings to go live on a similar solution.