Global ecommerce and shipping company Pitney Bowes has partnered with Sydney parcel delivery startup Sendle to help small to medium businesses with their shipping.
The partnership will see Sendle power the company’s SendPro shipping platform in Australia. SendPro will offer customers a national flat rate, including pickup and delivery guarantees, from Sendle, while Pitney Bowes will offer customers access to its shipping supplies, such as packaging and labels.
James Chin Moody, cofounder and CEO of Sendle, said the partnership will help the startup deliver on the goal upon which it was founded: to level the playing field for small businesses by giving them access to “big business delivery infrastructure”.
“This alliance is a step forward in making shipping affordable, simple and reliable for smaller businesses that previously did not have access to the improved customer experience and cost savings of a shipping platform like SendPro. We are proud to power this technology that positively impacts small business outcomes,” he said.
SendPro Premium has no monthly subscription or minimum order volume.
Stephen Darracott, Pitney Bowes country manager for Australia and New Zealand, added, “Our strategic partnership with Sendle is a milestone for us as part of our strategy to deliver a comprehensive range of shipping solutions. For small businesses, our solutions help drive revenue growth and deliver cost savings in shipping – an area that is vital today for conducting commerce.”
It comes as the latest Pitney Bowes Shipping Index found overall parcel volume in Australia grew by 13 percent to reach 794 million parcels shipped in 2016.
As Sendle looks to capture a greater share of this market, competitor Australia Post earlier this year launched three partnerships to help small businesses with a number of core functions.
The organisation in March partnered with ad specialists Tiger Pistol to create Social AdMate, aimed at helping small businesses create and manage social media advertising campaigns; with Spawnit to create Brandwrapped, allowing businesses to create custom packaging for parcels; and with Workfast, to give businesses access to temporary workers on-demand.
A Social AdMate subscription will give businesses access to a dedicated account manager to help them run a campaign, while BrandWrapped allows businesses to create personalised boxes, satchels, and other branded ‘extras’ such as ribbon, tape, labels, and wrapping paper, with Australia Post promising “low minimum print runs”.
Image: Stephen Darracott and James Chin Moody. Source: Supplied.
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