Shipwire Opens Hong Kong Warehouse to Help Brands Increase Sales in Asia and Australia

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - Jul 12, 2012) - Shipwire, the world's leading provider of e-commerce order fulfillment, today announced the general availability of a new Hong Kong warehouse to help brands reach buyers in fast-growing Asia-Pacific e-commerce markets. Hong Kong is the 7^th global warehouse integrated into the Shipwire web-based logistics platform, working seamlessly with Shipwire facilities throughout North America and Europe.

"Cutting shipping costs to Asia-Pacific buyers while delivering quickly is key to the success of our customers," said Damon Schechter, CEO of Shipwire. "The Hong Kong warehouse gives brands an amazing opportunity to serve buyers throughout Asia, who have been traditionally out of reach, with low-cost shipping and fast delivery of purchases."

In 2010, the port of Hong Kong was ranked the third largest shipping port by volume in the world serving as a gateway for products to and from Asia. The Shipwire Hong Kong warehouse is central to the region and will serve two purposes: it will act as a consolidation point for goods manufactured in Asia for distribution worldwide, and as a direct-to-consumer shipping facility for western brands to cut shipping time and costs to growing consumer markets throughout Asia-Pacific. According to Boston Consulting Group, by 2015 China e-commerce spending will grow from 3.3% today to 7.4% of retail sales. The rest of the region is also growing fast: Australian e-commerce grew by 36% in 2011 alone based on the Commonwealth Bank's research, with two-thirds of the growth coming from new online shoppers. In Japan, e-commerce sales grew by 17% every year since 2005 even while retail sales declined, making a Hong Kong warehouse an optimal solution for fulfilling online orders.

Shipwire also made available several resources for brands interested in exploring the Asia-Pacific market, including a white paper and an infographic examining the benefits of the Asia-Pacific market for brands. The white paper, titled "Reaching the next billion buyers for your brand: Overcoming the challenges of expanding into Asia-Pacific," seeks to demystify the expansion into these new markets for growing brands. The infographic provides a shareable, visual overview of the size and growth of various Asia-Pac markets, and the large cost savings brands can get when shipping out of Hong Kong to buyers in Asia and Australia. All resources are available on Shipwire's web site.

For Rovio, maker of the popular Angry Birds® game, the new Shipwire Hong Kong order fulfillment warehouse helps satisfy the rapidly growing customer demand throughout the Asia-Pacific region. "There are not many companies like Shipwire. With their new Hong Kong warehouse we can reach our fans in Asia, do it quickly, and for less because the product is already close to them," said Niklas Kari, Rovio's Head of Consumer Products. "Shipwire provided the quick integration and warehouse network that we needed to ship products to customers in nearly 200 countries." Watch the video where Niklas Kari talks about how Rovio used Shipwire expand their reach all over the world.

Shipwire Hong Kong will also help global brands that see an opportunity in selling to customers in China. According to the U.S.-China Business Council, Chinese consumer spending on U.S. exports has increased by 542% from 10 years ago.

"Now that we stage our products in Hong Kong we can reach an entire new set of customers," said David Wurtz, CEO of ArmorMount, a leading provider of TV wall mounts. "Not only is there a huge opportunity with customers in Asia and Australia, but we can also bring products to the western market quicker by consolidating shipments from various suppliers to the new warehouse. The Hong Kong warehouse is part of the overall Shipwire network which means I get real-time visibility into orders and inventory in Asia, North America and Europe through my Shipwire account."

The new warehouse is a 500,000 sq. ft. multi-level facility, and includes 11 shipping and receiving bays, serving a current capacity of 30,000 parcel packages per day. The increased capacity will provide storage for goods destined to buyers in Asia and Australia, and will help decrease shipping time and cost throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

About Shipwire (http://www.shipwire.com)

Enterprise logistics for everyone™

Shipwire provides cloud-based logistics services, shipping software and outsourced pick-pack and ship e-commerce order fulfillment services from warehouses around the world. Online sellers send their inventory to one of Shipwire's warehouses in the U.S., Canada, or Europe, and instantly connect Shipwire to their online store or marketplace. Customers buy from the merchant online. Shipwire uses "least-cost routing" to optimally pick, pack and ship the order to the buyer faster, and for less shipping cost. Shipwire is developer- and partner-friendly; learn more about our shipping affiliate partner program. For a free trial of outsourced order fulfillment, online postage printing, or free order management software, contact 1-888-SHIPWIRE or sign-up at http://www.shipwire.com/trial.