Pitney Bowes Ups The Ante In E-commerce With Consumer Connect

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) recently introduced Consumer Connect solution. The latest marketing solution focuses on enhancing post-purchase experience of buyers, encompassing on-time delivery, punctual refunds, standard brand packaging, among other relevant attributes.

With self-service Consumer Connect, customers can track shipments, receive relevant notifications and avail easy returns.

Consequently, the enhanced customer engagement is anticipated to benefit retailers. The retailers can also utilize Consumer Connect to provide customers with seamless returns and other attractive post-purchase deals to increase customer loyalty further.

Overall, with enhanced post-checkout experience, the solution is aimed at improving brand value of retailers.

Further, Pitney Bowes noted that Consumer Connect is being demonstrated at Shoptalk, from March 3-6 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, NV.



Coming to share price performance, Pitney Bowes stock has plunged 40.4% in the past year, compared with the industry’s decline of 25%.

Expanding E-commerce Solutions Portfolio: A Key Catalyst

With an aim to address evolving consumer tastes and preferences, retailers are increasingly looking to provide sturdy engagement solutions to boost customer retention rates and expand clientele.

The high-growth retailers keep into account minute details of a consumer’s shopping journey and take initiatives to enhance it. The company’s efforts to strengthen its Global Ecommerce business with new solutions, bodes well in this regard.

Per Pitney Bowes Global Ecommerce Study, “90% of online shoppers in the US will take an action that can hurt a retailer’s brand in response to a bad post-purchase experience.” The study also reveals that 30% of millennials will reveal poor post-purchase experience, publicly via social media, which is likely to affect the retailer’s brand reputation.

We believe the aforementioned factors favor the prospects of Consumer Connect marketing solution. The incremental adoption of the latest offering is expected to boost the top line going ahead.

Notably, Pitney Bowes reported Global Ecommerce revenues of $304.3 million in the last reported quarter, improving 15.3% year over year. The segment benefited from strong performance in parcel and fulfillment volumes. Moreover, 23% revenue growth on a year-over-year basis in Newgistics aided segment performance.

Wrapping Up

Pitney Bowes is benefiting from adoption of digital commerce solutions. Strength in company’s Global Ecommerce and Presort Services domain bodes well.

However, increasing expenditure in strategic areas, like Global Ecommerce and Commerce Cloud products, is expected to limit margin expansion, at least in the near term. Moreover, the company has a leveraged balance sheet which remains a concern.

Furthermore, competition from notable players in the digital commerce domain, including Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) , salesforce.com, among others, remains a headwind.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Currently, Pitney Bowes carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNPS) and Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Synopsys and Symantec have a long-term earnings growth rate of 10% and 7.9%, respectively.

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