Sydney-headquartered logistics software scale-up Shippit has announced its most significant international expansion in two years as it officially sets up an office in New Zealand, a market where it already has clients such as Kathmandu, Spotlight and Freedom.
The announcement follows the $18 million acquisition in 2022 of Singaporean logistics startup Luwjistik, which saw Shippit grow its team to more than 50 people across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, including localised research and development (R&D) and back-office employees.
More than 100 million deliveries are booked through the Shippit platform every year for 4,000 retailers across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region - a number that has risen from 3,500 over the past 12 months.
Shippit has identified New Zealand as a source of new opportunities with the operation to be led by its head of market development, Sofia Newcombe.
She will be supported by a team of 30 across R&D, product, shipping operations, customer success and sales. The group itself has close to 300 staff.
Shippit’s strategy will focus on forging alliances with key partners on key priorities, such as diversifying delivery options through same-day or on-demand deliveries, providing new optionality for bulky deliveries, expanding international delivery channels, and supporting retailers with owned fleets.
The scale-up plans to add to its list of New Zealand customers that also comprises Harvey Norman, Swanndri and Accent Group (ASX: AX1). The company claims it can give retailers access to discounted rates on a comprehensive carrier network that covers more than 95 per cent of the country’s parcel volume.
Shippit’s network of carriers across the Tasman includes NZCouriers, Aramex, NZPost, Post Haste, Uber and many more.
"Today is an extremely exciting day for Shippit, as we formally expand into New Zealand - a market we’ve admired from afar for a long time," says co-founder and co-CEO William On, who alongside Rob Hango-Zada featured in the 2024 Australia's Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs list - their third time in a row.
"Like Australia, New Zealand is an entrepreneurial, proud and innovative retail market. Our arrival comes at a pivotal time, though, as retailers prepare to compete against foreign retail entrants.
"Delivery has a genuinely causal effect on loyalty, and through our platform, we have the opportunity to power the next generation of retailing here just as we have done in Australia over the last decade."
Since Shippit's launch in 2014, almost $30 billion worth of ecommerce orders have been fulfilled through its platform - the largest of its kind in Australia - on behalf of thousands of retailers including Kmart, Cotton On, Coles Liquor, Total Tools, and Temple & Webster (ASX: TPW).
In recent years Shippit has achieved successful integrations with solutions such as Sherpa, HUBBED, SHOPLINE and Wix, in addition to several other platforms from BigCommerce to Shopify.
"Shippit is revolutionising e-commerce shipping with a focus on seamless experiences, empowering retailers throughout the customer journey, and leading the industry in sustainability," says co-founder and co-CEO Rob Hango-Zada.
"Our advanced technology, automation, and commitment to customer impact set us apart, delivering flawless, efficient, and customer-centric shipping solutions."
On adds that Shippit is also pioneering groundbreaking Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) compliance reporting to simplify the arduous task of carbon emissions disclosure for retailers.
"This will be validated against the rigorous GHG scope 3 methodology," he says.
"Shippit is in a unique position to be able to consolidate our data to enable Merchants to readily and easily report on specific disclosures as required by the government. We will set the standard for carbon measurement and build clarity on what a without waste world will look like."
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