TORONTO, ON—Cross-border eCommerce, particularly returns promises to be easier as a result of a new agreement between PUDO and Frontier Distributing of Fort Erie, ON and Buffalo, NY. It will utilize Frontier’s warehouse space and customs-clearing expertise to expedite eCommerce parcel traffic, most particularly returns, crossing the Canada-U.S. border in either direction.
“As we expand our PUDOpoint Counters in the United States and in Canada to accommodate increased parcel volumes, we want to fortify the competitive advantage of speed in the parcel traffic equation, most particularly as it applies to eCommerce returns,” said PUDO CEO and founder Frank Coccia. “Frontier has been in the cross-border clearance and logistics business for 40 years and have unique expertise that will help us help our retail clients receive returns merchandise more quickly and economically, and also, offer border-point fulfillment warehousing for small and medium sized businesses.
“By consolidating the 3PL (third party logistics) piece, customs clearance, and returns staging strategically along the border and within our carrier-neutral network of thousands of PUDOpoint Counters, even small retailers can add their parcel volume, regardless of its size, into our ‘best price, shortest and fastest route possible always’ logistics network and benefit from high-volume efficiency and discounts. Our long-term logistics partner Stamps.com, and their hyper-efficient optimization platform, figure prominently in our U.S. efficiency equation.”
Reducing returns costs and friction are crucial elements in reducing last-mile eCommerce gridlock in North America, as the industry has been facing unsustainable costs associated with offering free returns, said PUDO. In 2019, the cost of return deliveries within the U.S. and Canada exceeded USD363 billion, a number 42 percent higher than that incurred by the entire Asia-Pacific region.
In some industries, particularly retail fashion where customers are allowed to order multiple colours and sizes and return unwanted items for free, the cost of returns can exceed one-third of revenues, and in some cases returns costs exceed total revenue. A major contributor to the problem domestically, has been the lack of a virtually consolidated, carrier-neutral logistics network.
Expediting eCommerce returns and reducing costs makes sound environmental sense also, as gridlock stalls and friction create stale-dated mountains of so-called un-sellable merchandise that is very often easier to write-off and dispose of than it is to resell or recycle. Currently in the U.S. alone, over 2.5 million tonnes of new eCommerce merchandise end up in landfills annually, contributing 15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
“I am extraordinarily pleased to evolve our relationship with PUDO in this way, as it allows us to broaden our reach across and throughout North America,” said Frontier president and owner John Hamilton. “Already, we are strategically located geographically at the epicentre of North American logistics, and since we can scale allocated warehouse space as needed, we can hit the ground running immediately and begin saving PUDO and its clients both time and money.”
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