Flexport to roll-out last-mile e-commerce offering globally after Shopify deal

Flexport’s acquisition of the assets of Shopify’s logistics fulfilment business, including Deliverr, will eventually result in the digital freight forwarder rolling out last-mile e-commerce solutions to shippers globally, according to Parisa Sadrzadeh, Senior Vice President, SMB Product & Technology at Flexport.

Appearing on the next episode of The Freight Buyers’ Club podcast, produced with the support of the Dimerco Express Group and set for release next week, Sadrzadeh said initially the deal would enable Flexport to offer eCommerce fulfilment and last mile services to customers importing goods into the US. Over time this would be extended globally.

“I can’t speculate on the future, but I can say that Deliverr has got a pretty vast network for how they’re serving components like Shop Promise, and getting two to three day delivery promises across e-commerce marketplaces today, and our goal is to continue to extend that beyond the US as quickly as possible,” she told The Freight Buyers’ Club podcast (see video clip here that is available for publication).

Under the terms of the agreement, Shopify will receive stock representing an approximately 13% equity interest in Flexport, on top of its existing equity interest, in return for the assets of Shopify Logistics including three warehouse leases, access to approximately 50 warehouses in the US and Deliverr, a company Shopify acquired for $2.1 billion less than a year ago.

The acquisition has been heralded as a sign that Dave Clark, Flexport’s new chief executive and formerly of Amazon, is now making his mark on the company.

Sadrzadeh, who joined Flexport last year and is also an Amazon veteran of some 11+ years of experience, has been charged with leading Flexport’s integration with Shopify Logistics and Deliverr.

Asked if the deal was the start of the ‘Amazon-isation’ of Flexport, she replied:

“I actually think that this is directly in line with the vision that Ryan [Petersen, Flexport Founder] had set out when he first started the company. Yes, it started with freight forwarding, but the idea was really to democratize the movement of goods. And to do that you have to own the last pieces of the supply chain puzzle and Deliverr, in this acquisition of Shopify Logistics, just moved us so much faster into that vision. But we were already marching down that path.”

The full interview will appear on the next episode of The Freight Buyers’ Club podcast which is out next week and is available on all podcast platforms, YouTube and at thefreightbuyersclub.com.