UPS announced it has acquired U.S.-based international e-commerce enabler and logistics company i-parcel.
The acquisition complements UPS’s international cross-border logistics capabilities from the U.S. and U.K., to over 100 countries.
As e-commerce merchants in the U.S., U.K. and other countries grow, UPS continues to strengthen its logistics and technology capabilities to meet the demands of its global customer base.
“UPS continues to look ahead to the expanding worldwide demands in the ever-growing global e-commerce market,” said Alan Gershenhorn, UPS executive vice president and chief commercial officer.
“According to a Pay-Pal study*, cross-border e-commerce will reach $105 billion this year and by 2018 will exceed $300 billion with 130 million cross-border online shoppers. UPS continues to invest in capabilities that enable its e-commerce merchants to meet the growing global demand.”
“i-parcel has been an international bridge linking U.S. and U.K. merchants to global e-commerce consumers throughout the world and our team is excited to join with UPS to further globalize e-commerce,” said Will Gensburg, i-parcel’s CEO, who will remain with the company.
i-parcel Global e-Commerce merchants connect to over 100 million global shoppers with an integrated platform that provides a localized look and feel on the respective merchant’s website.
The i-parcel platform supports merchant’s websites with a local language welcome mat, fraud protection, fully-landed total prices (including customs duties and taxes) in local currency and numerous value enhancing features.
These features enable consumers in over 100 countries to shop online in the U.S. and U.K. as if they were shopping in their own country. i-parcel also provides low-cost deferred international transportation facilitating higher shopper conversion for merchants on lower-value goods.
The combined software and transportation solutions allow merchants in the U.S. and U.K., two of the largest e-commerce markets, to reach a broader international consumer base without expanding their footprint.
*Sourced from PayPal’s The Modern Spice Routes
The Cultural Impact and Economic Opportunity of Cross-Border Shopping
Throughout history, trade has influenced culture. When the traditional spice routes were first established between Europe, India, Africa and the Middle East, when we exchanged goods, we also shared language, knowledge, food etc. In short - culture.
This type of importing and exporting – or cross-border shopping – is common today. And we now see savvy consumers using the Internet to buy directly from merchants all over the world. This is creating the emergence of modern spice routes that could start to influence cultures in the same way the spice routes did.
PayPal has commissioned Nielsen research to better understand the rise of cross-border shopping by analyzing the activity and behavior of over 6,000 consumers in six major markets who shopped directly online from overseas websites over the past 12 months.
If you would like to get deeper insights into the behavior of 94 million cross-border shoppers in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, China and Brazil this year, or would like to get more data on the economic opportunity for businesses everywhere to tap into this USD105 billion cross-border shopping market today, download PayPal’s “Modern Spice Routes: The Cultural Impact and Economic Opportunity of Cross-Border Shopping” report.