Logistics boom drives e-commerce firm’s relocation from Austin to Houston
Cart.com is moving its corporate headquarters back to Houston after three years in Austin, Texas, citing the Bayou City’s infrastructure, talent pool and blend of consumers as reasons for returning.
The corporate is a provider of online commerce and logistics solutions for merchants to sell and fulfill orders across the globe. Cart.com currently has about 6,000 brands on its platform.
“The initial move to Austin in December 2021 was driven by a necessity at the moment to rent tech talent (specifically software engineers) amid the COVID-19 direct-to-consumer commerce boom,” an organization spokesman said in an email to FreightWaves. “Austin has delivered on that promise and we were in a position to find the high-quality tech talent we wanted for where we were as an organization. But we’re a unique, more mature company than we were once we moved to Austin. We’re now in search of talent (including engineers) with experience across a more diverse set of industries, particularly in logistics and provide chain.”
Cart.com was founded in Houston in 2020 by Omar Tariq and Jim Jacobsen, who launched the corporate as an e-commerce-as-a-service platform. Cart.com offers integrated suites of software, services and infrastructure to run backend solutions, in addition to marketing and achievement operations.
In June, Cart.com reached a valuation of $1.2 billion after a $60 million Series C round of funding. Since 2020, the corporate has secured greater than $400 million in capital.
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During Cart.com’s two years in Austin, it grew each its revenue and its achievement network footprint by 900% while expanding its customer base to support a few of the country’s biggest retailers, enterprise merchants and government organizations, the corporate said.
“As we proceed to scale, we are actually looking to reinforce other areas of the corporate, including human resources, finance, accounting, and legal,” the spokesman said. “We feel the move to Houston will unlock a deeper talent pool in these areas based on its position as a hub for major business.”
With a population of two.3 million, Houston is the most important city in Texas and the fourth largest within the U.S. The Houston metropolitan area is home to 7.3 million people and will grow to greater than 8 million by 2028, in line with a recent study by real estate consultant Site Selection Group.
The relocation to Houston can even facilitate improved connectivity amongst the corporate’s seven corporate offices, including locations in Poland and Mexico, and 14 distribution centers across the U.S. The Houston Airport System operates two major airports: George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport.
“Houston’s infrastructure makes it easier for our team members (now 1,500+) to travel and for the corporate to bring larger groups of individuals together on-site at one headquarters,” the spokesman said.
Cart.com will profit from the region’s logistics and provide chain capabilities, officials said.
“We’ve continued to maneuver upmarket when it comes to customer size and now serve a broad mixture of business-to-business, business-to-consumer and direct-to-consumer customers,” the corporate spokesman said. “The logistics a part of our business is growing particularly quickly, largely because we’re more digitally sophisticated than our competitors. As a part of this shift, Houston’s interconnectivity and position as a key global port is increasingly worthwhile to us.”
Houston can be one in all the busiest port cities within the country. The 52-mile Houston Ship Channel comprises greater than 200 private and eight public terminals, collectively often known as Port Houston. The port is currently the fifth-ranked U.S. container port by total twenty-foot equivalent units. In September, imports and exports totaled $18.4 billion at Port Houston, in line with WorldCity.
Cart.com officials said the outlook for the e-commerce market this holiday season and going forward into 2024 stays strong. The entire value of merchandise sold from Black Friday and Cyber Monday was 24% higher yr over yr across the corporate’s achievement network.
Cart.com’s retailers beat their demand forecasts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday by 28% on average, its top five retailers beat their projections by over 330% and doubled year-over-year demand, in line with data provided by the corporate.
“During Black Friday-Cyber Monday, clients across our network, on average, met or beat their forecasts,” the spokesman said. “Based on this, our sense is that this holiday season will proceed to be strong and should beat expectations.”
MercuryGate acquires customs software provider International Trade Systems
MercuryGate International Inc., one in all the most important dedicated transportation management solutions providers on the earth, announced the acquisition of International Trade Systems (ITS), a SaaS provider of cross-border customs clearance capabilities.
With the addition of ITS, MercuryGate goals to deliver integrated solutions across the worldwide trade management space by supporting all modes, geographies and buyer types, in line with a news release.
“With the addition of ITS … we address one in all industry’s most pressing needs and extend the worth, intelligence and power of our purpose-built TMS platform for all modes, geographies and buyer types,” MercuryGate President and CEO Joe Juliano said in a press release. “We’re excited to further expand MercuryGate offerings for freight forwarders and deliver enhanced capabilities to this customer segment.”
Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed.
Portland, Oregon-based ITS was founded in 1989 and provides customs and compliance capabilities for the international trade community. Greater than 200 customers and 5,000 users, including customs brokers, importers and freight forwarders, leverage ITS software.
Cary, North Carolina-based MercuryGate was founded in 2000 and has about 300 employees.
Latest Mexico proclaims 2 logistics hubs locating in Santa Teresa
The Latest Mexico Economic Development Department recently announced Coast Aluminum Inc. and Monti Inc. will construct manufacturing and logistics facilities in Santa Teresa.
Hayward, California-based Coast Aluminum is constructing a $10 million 73,500-square-foot distribution center within the Santa Teresa Binational Industrial Park. The corporate, which has 20 locations throughout the U.S. and Mexico, distributes aluminum materials and chrome steel, copper, brass and architectural metal products.
The Coast Aluminum facility is scheduled to open by the primary quarter of 2024.
Cincinnati-based Monti Inc. also announced plans to take a position $14 million at an 80,000-square-foot site in Santa Teresa. Once complete, the ability will function a regional hub for Monti’s manufacturing and distribution of electrical components. Officials didn’t provide a timeline for the ability’s opening.
Coast Aluminum and Monti join other recent expansions within the Santa Teresa area, including
Franklin Mountain Packaging, Louisiana Pepper Exchange and Hota Industrial.
Texas city receives approval for Foreign Trade Zone program
The Department of Commerce recently approved a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) program in Socorro, Texas.
The approval of Socorro’s FTZ application gives the municipality the authority to allow businesses to establish foreign trade sites inside city limits. Foreign trade zones are special areas within the U.S. that profit corporations by reducing import duties and other costs with the aim of accelerating domestic manufacturing and promoting economic growth.
Socorro is about 15 miles from El Paso, Texas. The town becomes the thirty fifth FTZ in Texas and the third in El Paso County.
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