Pitney Bowes Launches Global Trade Solutions to Power Global Commerce in the Cloud

Guaranteed Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) takes cost uncertainty out of cross-border trade improving experience for both buyers and sellers

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI), a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, today announced the expansion of its Global Trade Solutions to facilitate cross-border trade. The web-based technology of the Global Trade Solutions portal now offers management of Guaranteed Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) shipments along with calculation of import duty and taxes, lookup of full digit Harmonized System (HS) commodity codes and restrictions. Retailers, logistics providers and postal operators can navigate the complexities of global trade, while expanding cross-border reach.

“As the opportunity for global cross-border trade expands, so does the complexity. More consumers from more countries are shopping the globe, however duties, taxes and restrictions vary by country and territory,” said Lila Snyder, Executive Vice President and President of Global Ecommerce, Pitney Bowes. “To be successful, merchants need to create a transparent experience, including accurate final costs for the end customer. Our Global Trade Solutions provide the tools to easily access and use the broad range of data, rules and regulations needed for cross-border trade in over 140 countries and territories.”

Pitney Bowes Global Trade Solutions improves the process through easy to use and up-to-date tools; fast and easy to implement API web services; and 24/7 tariff classification services at scale. Whether it is understanding customs rules, looking-up HS tariff codes, identification of restrictions or export controls, the SaaS platform of Global Trade Solutions delivers a unique set of technological protocols for seamless international trade.

“Avenue 32 first started using Global Trade Solutions at the time when we were seeing our international markets enjoying triple-digit growth, but a delivery performance that was impacting negatively on our returning business,” shared John Brien, Commercial Director at Avenue 32, an online luxury shopping site. “The implementation was an effortless ‘plug-in’ and by making use of low-maintenance classification uploads we enabled fully pre-paid duty payments at checkout. Since launch, we have not had a single duty query on any international delivery; either by customs authority or customers. Moreover, with the expedited customs clearance, we are able to offer standard 1-2 day delivery from our UK warehouse to any destination in the USA. The Global Trade Solution provides outstanding customer service with professional and tailored support, as well as representing excellent value for the money.”

In a short time, Global Trade Solutions have on-boarded over 5,000 customers in 88 countries. Clients can access Global Trade Solutions in three ways, by using:

• Web tools to: calculate import duty and taxes; lookup HS codes, rates and restrictions; and access resources for country import/export guides, denied party screening and Guaranteed DDP.
• APIs that can be embedded seamlessly in business processes, for example to enable a merchant to charge accurate import duty and taxes at checkout, and to offer a total landed cost to their international customers. The APIs allow merchants to classify their product catalog, charge accurate import duty and taxes at checkout and create required documentation (commercial invoice, packing list), including 10-digit HS codes for the country of destination.
• Product classification services -- whether for a single product or for an entire catalog -- with a choice of human classification by trade experts or machine classification.

The Pitney Bowes Global Trade Solutions are an integral part of the Pitney Bowes Commerce Cloud, a commerce enabler, providing access to solutions, analytics and APIs across the full commerce continuum with speed and agility to help clients identify customers, locate opportunities, enable communications, power shipping from anywhere to everywhere and manage payments.

About Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI) is a global technology company offering innovative products and solutions that enable commerce in the areas of customer information management, location intelligence, customer engagement, shipping and mailing, and global ecommerce. More than 1.5 million clients in approximately 100 countries around the world rely on products, solutions and services from Pitney Bowes. For additional information, visit Pitney Bowes at www.pitneybowes.com.

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Pitney Bowes Inc.Dan Burris, [e-mail]