SEKO Logistics is leveraging the advantages of their early entry into the global ecommerce market with the launch of a new SEKO Ecommerce business unit to grow their international cross border shipping, global fulfillment, heavyweight last mile, and returns and recommerce solutions into a multibillion dollar-plus business by 2025.
The global ecommerce market grew by 24% in 2020, producing market sales revenues of $4.2 trillion. Another year of record growth in 2021 is expected to boost sales to nearer $4.9 trillion. The launch of SEKO Ecommerce reflects the rise of Direct to Consumer (DTC) brands selling through their own channels utilizing platforms such as Shopify. SEKO has pre-built integrations to all major ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, Magento, Commerce Cloud and Demandware, allowing faster onboarding and frictionless implementations to enable accelerated global growth for clients. Existing clients include digitally native direct to consumer brands, retailers pivoting to ecommerce, marketplaces, merchants, ecommerce technology partners and more within the growing and diverse ecommerce market.
SEKO Ecommerce expects rapid growth by working with brands selling through multiple channels and marketplaces, including Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, Tmall, Walmart and more as it continues to build its reputation as the global logistics provider that connects ecommerce to the primary supply chain.
Now accounting for 40% of SEKO Logistics’ annual revenues, SEKO’s ecommerce operation has more than doubled in size in the last 12 months as online consumer purchases accelerated during the COVID lockdown. This growth has been boosted by SEKO’s ability to offer fast ‘plug and play’ solutions for retail brands entering the ecommerce market for the first time, as well as digitally native brands and start-ups and existing online merchants targeting rapid cross border growth.
The new business unit is led by David Emerson, Senior Vice President of SEKO Ecommerce. He joined SEKO in 2003 as a partner at SEKO United Kingdom. He was Vice President of Sales-EMEA, responsible for expanding SEKO’s footprint between Europe, Asia and the Americas, before accepting this new global role.
Chris Zheng has also been promoted to Senior Vice President – Global Cross Border for SEKO Ecommerce. Chris was previously Executive Vice President at Air-City when SEKO acquired Air-City in 2019 and has been instrumental in spearheading and growing SEKO’s cross border parcel solutions, including T86 parcel clearance and final mile into the United States.
SEKO got into the global ecommerce space in 2011, becoming one of the first entrants in the increasingly global ecommerce fulfillment market, and has been growing its international cross border parcel volumes rapidly since 2013 through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. SEKO’s growing share of the market is underpinned by their single platform technology solutions and 15 regional ecommerce fulfilment centers in China and Hong Kong, the US, Australia and Europe - offering seamless global reach into prime ecommerce markets. Outside of the volumes carried by integrators and postal operators, SEKO already commands a respectable share of the US inbound ecommerce parcels market.
“The impact of COVID has accelerated what was already happening in the global ecommerce market, in terms of rapid year-over-year growth,” said James Gagne, President & CEO of SEKO Logistics. “The launch of SEKO Ecommerce advances our ability to embrace this demand by bringing all our ecommerce solutions together under one leadership team. SEKO was an early adopter of ecommerce in 2011, and this next evolution enables us to see the market through one lens, and to globalize what we offer. Ecommerce penetration has essentially accelerated five years overnight. We are in a unique position to grow, both organically and through acquisition, by leveraging the measurable advantages of our business model.”
SEKO Ecommerce offers clients four core solutions:
•International Ecommerce Shipping & Delivery Services – including Section 321/Type 86 Clearances for cross border inbound deliveries to the US, and specialized customs management and end-to-end solutions in the UK, EU, Greater China, Australia and other prime international markets.
•Global Ecommerce Fulfilment - in SEKO’s own facilities, giving clients one integration with frictionless visibility into multiple global locations enabling clients to deploy fungible inventory around the world through multiple channels.
•Global Parcel Returns & Recommerce - using SEKO’s, and integrated partner, technologies, combined with SEKO facilities and ‘middle mile’ solutions to deliver a true end-to-end service.
•Heavyweight Ecommerce Shipping & Last Mile Delivery – leveraging SEKO’s asset-light Direct to Consumer White Glove delivery solutions in the US for oversized deliveries, including furniture, TVs, and home décor products.
SEKO Ecommerce will continue to primarily work with fashion, beauty, cosmetics, tech and lifestyle clients, which have spearheaded their ecommerce growth for over 10 years - giving them the ability to process international orders and track individual parcels on a single SEKO platform. SEKO Ecommerce is also working with other aggregators and postal operators to better facilitate global international ecommerce parcel shipping. In the US, SEKO will also grow their service offering for larger consumer purchases.
“For a lot of brands, using integrators to move their products is the ‘easy button’ when they start out, but our model is fundamentally different. Integrator services are essentially built for scale, but scale is not always what clients want. They need speed, reliability, accountability, and support from a partner like SEKO which truly understands their business. Price points are critical too; a $12 dress doesn’t need a $25 delivery cost,” David Emerson said.
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