Sellers who use Shopify to host their online stores got a new tool to help them manage their international shipments from suppliers. One of Amazon’s most high-profile executives Dave Clark, who jumped to Flexport last year after 23 years with Amazon, tweeted the logistics news on Thursday morning. (Shopify is an investor in Flexport.)
This isn’t a tool for sending out orders to international customers, but rather, Flexport’s primary function is to help sellers get their inventory from the factory to their warehouses or fulfillment centers. In 2016, Flexport founder Ryan Petersen explained the need for such a service:
“Our job is to coordinate the complexity required to move freight across a diverse network of logistics asset owners. Because no company is big enough to have all the assets required—trucks, container ships, cargo planes, trains, warehouses, and more, in every country on earth—freight forwarders have to use multiple asset owners on any given shipment.”
With the new offering, Shopify merchants can link their product catalog to Flexport and get freight estimates and then book them.
Flexport explains it is a global freight forwarder and licensed customs broker. A spokesperson told EcommerceBytes, “We shipped over $26B in goods last year, and offer a full suite of forwarding services across modes (ocean and airfreight, trucking, rail) as well as ancillary shipping services such as insurance, financing, and customs/compliance.”
The Flexport App on Shopify gives Shopify merchants access to its Full-Container-Load (FCL) and Less-than-Container-Load (LCL) ocean freight services, as well as enhanced cargo protection (i.e. insurance) and customs clearance. “Everything is processed through the Flexport Platform, our cloud-native supply chain technology that powers our entire forwarding business,” she said.
The announcement on Flexport.com includes a video showing how the new app works for Shopify merchants.
Updated 2/9/2023 to clarify that Flexport is a global freight forwarder.
