Among the many headaches retailers face, shipping sits near the top of the list. While big corporations often have the resources to absorb high international costs and delays, smaller DTC and independent brands are left footing the bill and feeling it in their margins. Logistics platform Mayple Global thinks it has a fix. Its new service, Mayple Direct, is launching in partnership with Emirates Courier Express, the end-to-end global integrator solution from Emirates. Through the agreement, Mayple will tap into its centralized logistics hub in Dubai, while Emirates will leverage its global passenger fleet to deliver packages to eight underserved international markets. The idea: make global shipping for US e-commerce brands as seamless as sending a package across the country. Ammar Moiz, founder and CEO of Mayple Global, explained that globally, retailers often have to go through middlemen that act as international distributors for them, which while for a “multinational conglomerate” is less of a concern, for a brand with fewer resources, it’s more complex. Mayple is also able to take advantage of Dubai’s extensive free zone network which allows goods to move in and out more easily. Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date. Mayple Direct is also beneficial for US-based companies dealing with changing trade regulations and tariffs as it enables them to bypass the process of having a product shipped to the US from a potential manufacturing hub in Asia and then back to a different country again. The model opens up smaller markets that retailers might otherwise ignore. “We’re not expecting a US brand to set up a logistics operation just for the Kenyan market,” Moiz said. “But if you aggregate these smaller countries together, we’ve seen it make a meaningful demand base. It can generate 25%–30% of your international demand.”
Source