Fashion
Pitney Bowes Inc. subsidiary Borderfree is expanding its online shopping catalogue for Chinese online customers to serve their penchant for America-based consumer products. The company intends to provide these customers with more options for American brands in fashion, sports apparel and lifestyle accessories ahead of the upcoming holiday season.
In particular, Borderfree has extended its partnership with China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding’s subsidiary company, Ant Financial’s Alipay (an online payment services provider). This will allow China-based consumers to purchase directly from the retailer’s websites using localized payments. Borderfree’s collaboration with Ant Financial helps obliterate currency and logistics barriers, allowing leading global retailers to explore the Chinese soil.
Borderfree realizes that customer security is paramount in online transactions and hence, is working closely with payment and marketing platform “Alipay ePass” (which allows U.S. merchants to gain access to Chinese consumers with an Alipay account), to woo in major crowd this holiday season. On the other hand, this deal also enables Alipay’s 400 million registered customers to access the products of a wide range of international retailers including Aéropostale, MotoSport, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue at comparable prices.
In our opinion, the incredible growth of online shopping in China, which likely accounts for over 40% of the world’s retail e-commerce according to EMarketer, is enough to bank on the profitability of this particular deal. Moreover, the fact that the U.S. happens to be the leading e-shopping destination of the world further brightens the commercial attractiveness of Pitney Bowes.
Earlier in June, Pitney Bowes completed the acquisition of Borderfree to complement its e-commerce business. Encouragingly, this gave the company a first-mover advantage for exploring a multibillion-dollar market, which enjoys a double-digit growth rate. Notably, company sources suggest that the rapidly growing Chinese e-commerce sector is emerging as the key driver of the nation’s overall economic growth, primarily fueled by increased Internet penetration and surge in smartphone ownership.
We believe the approaching holiday season will witness colossal growth in online purchase data, and this bodes well for Pitney Bowes’ profitability. Moreover, integration of the Borderfree business with its global e-commerce business will help the company reap significant cost-synergies in the long run.
Pitney Bowes currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in the industry is Advanced Emissions Solutions, Inc., that holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
