In what has already been an extremely busy year for innovation and advancement, cloud supply chain firm Stord has added another tool into its growing suite of services. Stord Parcel is a carrier-agnostic last-mile delivery solution that uses advanced modeling to choose the most efficient and cost-effective carrier and service level for each package.
Stord, which counts numerous direct-to-consumer and omnichannel brands among its clients, is adding the solution to provide access to discounted negotiated carrier rates from a network of regional, national and international carriers through a single point of contact.
“Today, most brands set up simple rules for service level selection based on standard carrier guidelines, which means they often opt for a more expensive service level to ensure on-time delivery,” explained Sean Henry, CEO and co-founder of Stord, which on Tuesday was ranked 25th on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 of the nation’s fastest growing technology firms. “With Stord Parcel, brand operators can feel confident that their parcel program is truly optimized based on real, historical performance data rather than broad guidelines.”
Seeking to become a “port-to-porch” solutions provider, Stord now offers technology and capacity solutions in cold chain, warehousing, ports, fulfillment and now last mile.
Stord said Stord Parcel evaluates each package’s unique characteristics in real time as well as actual delivery performance and recommends the most efficient and cost-effective way to ship that parcel, within the required delivery promise window even in situations in which the service level may have a longer delivery estimate.
Watch: Stord CEO Sean Henry on building a business
“Too many of today’s brands spend significant resources managing carrier relationships and implementing rules-based engines to rate shop and adhere to carrier delivery estimates,” Henry noted in a LinkedIn posting announcing the service.
The company said that firms using Stord Parcel can see savings of 12% to 15% on parcel spend. When combined with a 5% to 12% reduction when adding additional fulfillment locations offered through Stord, brands could reduce their spend per shipment by as much as $2 while still meeting consumer delivery expectations.
Stord Parcel is being rolled out through the end of this year and the first quarter of 2023.
Busy as a bee
Stord has been busy in 2022 as it scales its business amid a tight warehouse capacity market.
In August, Stord announced the inclusion of drayage, temperature-controlled fulfillment, custom packaging and e-commerce returns solutions to its Stord One Commerce platform and the appointment of Tom Barone as president and COO.
The new Stord One Commerce addition includes warehousing and fulfillment, retailer compliance prep and value-added services such as kitting and labeling.
Stord One Commerce allows brands to piece together their various logistics technology across providers, eliminating siloed data and additional software implementations. Stord said the tech solution serves as a “digital glue” that acts as a control tower and connects all elements of a brand’s supply chain.
Barone joined the company from CommerceHub, where he was most recently chief revenue officer. He has more than 20 years of experience in e-commerce with a focus on technology and the supply chain.
In July, Stord announced a partnership with Fresh Del Monte that opened excess space inside 22 Fresh Del Monte cold storage facilities across the U.S. to Stord customers. As of last fall, refrigerated and frozen foods accounted for 9% and 13%, respectively, of total e-commerce grocery sales. Henry told Modern Shipper at the time that Stord customers, as part of the agreement, would be able to leverage some of Fresh Del Monte’s logistics capabilities.
Stord this year also announced an additional 780,000 square feet of combined warehouse space in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, and in New Haven, Connecticut. The markets are part of Stord’s six-node first-party fulfillment network, which also includes Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas. Combined with more than 1,000 partner facilities, Stord is able to reach 99% of U.S. consumers in two days or less via ground shipping.
In May, Stord announced the closing of a $210 million Series D funding round with a final installment of $120 million. The first part of the round, $90 million, was announced in September 2021. The May funding was led by Franklin Templeton. The entire Series D included participation from new investors Sozo Ventures, Strike Capital and 137 Ventures, along with existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Bond, Susa Ventures, Dynamo Ventures, Lux Capital and Salesforce Ventures.
Click for more articles by Brian Straight.
You may also like:
Stord rethinks the warehouse with Atlanta innovation hub
Cloud supply chain firm Stord adds $120M in new funding at $1.3B valuation
Stord adds warehouse capacity to fulfillment network in key markets