Pitney Bowes has taken another step in a transition beyond its roots as a mailing and printing products provider with the acquisition of Seattle company Enroute, which makes a cloud-based transportation management system for retailers. Here are the key details from Pitney Bowes' announcement:
Since 2008, Enroute’s enterprise-grade, multi-carrier shipping solutions have helped high-volume retailers and e-tailers with faster shipping execution times, lower shipping costs, enhanced business intelligence, and real-time supply chain visibility and tracking.
“As companies continue to innovate and improve on the overall retail shopping experience, how they cater to consumers will continue to change. What is critical for both consumers and retailers is a seamless shopping experience across channels with flexible delivery options,” said Lila Snyder, president, Global Ecommerce, Pitney Bowes. “The expansion of our ecommerce offerings will enable us to help our clients deliver a better consumer shopping experience from sales order to package delivery by connecting a variety of physical and digital processes in the fulfillment management chain.”
Enroute's system scales from very small shippers to ones that send hundreds of thousands of packages per day, according to its website. It includes a module called InStore, which retail workers can use to fulfill orders placed online, as well as move products between warehouses and retail stores. There are also modules for optimizing inbound shipments to stores, as well as for running historical and real-time analytics against shipping data.
Analysis: Enroute Deal Points to Both Pitney Bowes' Ambitions and Macro Retail Trends
Buying Enroute "is obviously a clear signal they're trying to be a full-service logistics, e-commerce and trade company," says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Guy-Frederic Courtin. They're building off their mailing and labeling legacy, and pushing into that space. This acquisition is a continuation of that journey."
However, the acquisition "is another example showing how the best way to provide these types of services is still being defined," Courtin adds. "There's no clear single solution or solution provider. We as consumers think of all the big players—FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, DHL—as being able to handle things, but there are so many different moving parts underneath where a Pitney Bowes could play."
Pitney Bowes will look to use Enroute to expand its footprint within existing customers for its mailing services, Courtin adds. "This could allow them to be more strategic with customers, such as ones trying to go into a new market."
In an era marked by advancements such as Amazon's same-day delivery service, the shipping industry faces contininously mounting pressure and thus an opportunity for Pitney Bowes, Courtin notes. "Our expectations know no boundaries," he says. "Whether we're shipping widgets, car engines or laptops, our expectations are being driven in large part by our experience as consumers."
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