This article on Shippit was originally run by The Australian Financial Review and can be found here.
BigCommerce’s Australian founders may have taken a back seat but the company isn’t slowing down on its local focus, announcing a new deal with Sydney-based delivery firm Shippit.
BigCommerce was started after a chance meeting in an online chatroom of Australians Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper, but is now headquartered in Austin, Texas. It’s now led by former PayPal executive Brent Bellm, and is reportedly mulling a public listing. Mr Machaalani still serves as executive chairman.
The company is today announcing a partnership with Shippit as it continues to ramp up its Australian operations.
“Shippit is really simple,” chief technology officer Brian Dhatt told The Australian.
“It’s really easy to use and it takes the complexity out of this equation that the retailer has to deal with.” He said thousands of BigCommerce merchants could now access enterprise shipping rates with carriers including Couriers Please, Fastway, Star Track Express, Star Track Premium, DHL Express, DHL eCommerce and TNT, among others.
Chief product officer Jimmy Duvall said having a strong Australian team on the ground — along with a history here — meant the company knew the Australian commerce market inside out.
“The most fantastic thing about having a team in market here is they demand that we bring features to the platform that will be great for this market,” he said. “They’re instrumental in saying ‘hey guess what, we won’t be competitive without these features’.”
Research from Pitney Bowes showed parcel volume in Australia experienced double-digit growth in 2016, and is expected to grow between 4.5 per cent and 5.4 per cent a year through 2021.
“In order to compete effectively in the global marketplace, Australian merchants need tools that cater to their particular needs,” said Will On, co-founder and joint-CEO at Shippit.
“As an Australian-born company, BigCommerce has always been a great resource for local businesses, and this partnership with one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms will allow us to offer enterprise capability to thousands of local merchants — small and large — a robust and turnkey shipping offering that will enable them to easily and consistently grow at scale, both locally and internationally.”