Summer 2008

Borderlinx, a UK-based company that aims to help UK shoppers to buy from American web sites and US retailers to sell overseas, has appointed DHL to handle storage, picking and consolidation at the US end of the movement.

The system allows US internet retailers to integrate directly with Borderlinx, making their products immediately available to the international marketplace.

Borderlinx provides payment solutions, order fulfilment and despatch services, and under the agreement with DHL, says it will now be able to offer delivery to any of the 225 countries and territories served by DHL.

Purchases are sent to and stored at DHL's primary air and ground hub in Ohio until the customer requests delivery. Consolidation is said to save consumers significantly on import fees, duties and transport charges.

 

The Borderlinx web site quotes shipping rates starting at $37.40 for a four- to six-day service on a 1kg consignment.

DHL Solutions is the division of the carrier handling this operation. It will provide full-service warehousing and fulfilment services including product storage, picking, packaging and consolidation, working out of the DHL hub in Wilmington, Ohio.

According to Bordlinx founder Neill O' Sullivan: 'We can now offer our US-based retailers and consumers around the world the best option for express delivery service for their international orders.' Marc Biouin, senior vice president of DH Solutions in the US, points out that only a small 2 percentage of the top 500 US internet retailers currently ship internationally.

'This new partnership between DHL and Borderlinx opens the marketplace to hundreds of millions of customers who until now have not been able to purchase their products from US internet retailers.'

Meanwhile, Borderlinx has joined forces with Citibank to set up a service called GloberShopper which offers people in Singapore the opportunity to buy from US-based e-tailers. Again, DHL is providing fulfilment for this service.