FedEx rebrands global e-commerce arm as FedEx CrossBorder

Dive Brief:

FedEx Trade Networks, the international freight-forwarding arm of shipping titan FedEx, announced Tuesday it is re-branding its Bongo International subsidiary as FedEx CrossBorder.
FedEx in 2014 acquired Bongo, an international e-commerce company based in St. Petersburg, FL that provides tax and duty fee calculations, export compliance management services, currency conversions, and other international e-commerce logistics.
FedEx CrossBorder is part of the shipper’s moves to address the mounting number of packages coming from Asia and worldwide, especially China and Japan.

Dive Insight:

More and more customers worldwide are interested in buying across borders, and because of Bongo’s robust capabilities in dealing with the heavy paperwork and math that comes with international shipping, FedEx’s acquisition of Bongo made—literally—loads of sense. And of course, it was only a matter of time that Bongo would lose its own identity and become part of the FedEx-branded stable of subsidiaries.

FedEx CrossBorder enables businesses to ship to consumers in more than 200 countries and territories. “Only about one-third of U.S.-based global e-commerce sites accept foreign currencies, and research tells us that customers are more likely to abandon shopping carts that only show U.S. dollar pricing,” Chip Hull, VP, FedEx CrossBorder, said in a statement. “FedEx CrossBorder addresses international purchasing obstacles with a seamless checkout and delivery approach that accepts over 80 currencies, provides 15 payment options, manages multiple delivery options, and offers credit card fraud protection, all through a single platform.”

As the company notes, the FedEx CrossBorder re-launch comes at a time when global e-commerce is booming, with more than $1 trillion in annual sales per year—a figure that could nearly double within four years.

Last week, FedEx CFO Alan Graf said that e-commerce deliveries will most likely become more expensive to help the company make a profit on ground shipments. While e-commerce continues to grow, in large part buoyed by omnichannel efforts at many brick-and-mortar stores, the costs are great, especially for retailers offering low or zero shipping fees for orders and returns.

“We can’t build these networks and spend this kind of capital and not get a return on it,” Graf told the Wall Street Journal.