As retailers continue to service increasingly global makets, figuring out how to get orders where they’re heading efficiently might become an even bigger business than selling those products in the first place. If that turns out to be true, eBay just took a step in the right direction.
eBay Enterprise announced Tuesday (April 19) that it had merged with eCommerce fulfillment firm Innotrac to form Radial, a provider for omnichannel commerce technology and operations support. Tobias Hartmann, president of the newly formed Radial, explained that the company’s mission is a critically necessary one now and will only grow in importance as markets grow to be as diverse as the desires of the consumers that comprise them.
“Despite allocating significant resources to omnichannel, many retailers have not evolved fast enough to keep pace with their customers’ demands and expectations,” Hartmann said in a statement. “Radial empowers brands to take down the ‘walls’ between their physical and digital stores, giving them an advantage to acquiring and retaining customers by delivering the type of personalized experiences that keep them coming back for more.”
Stefan Weitz, the former director of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, will assume the role of chief product and strategy officer at Radial, and it’s the company’s already established global reach — TechCrunch explained that its Pennsylvania headquarters will serve as the hub of operations for 24 distribution facilities and six call centers across North America and Europe — that has Weitz bullish on Radial’s potential for omnichannel support.
“Retailers are seeing a tremendous strain on their businesses because execution of omnichannel is insanely hard,” Weitz said. “Radial is all about building the tools retailers need to compete — and win — in the increasingly complex and competitive eCommerce space. Only Radial has industry-leading tech and expansive operational expertise that offers retailers the most efficient — and profitable — path to get products in consumers’ hands.”