(Reuters) -Canada’s Shopify said on Thursday it would buy U.S.-based logistics firm Deliverr in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $2.1 billion, in a move to help mitigate supply chain snarls that have plagued the e-commerce sector.
U.S-listed shares of the company, which helps merchants set up online shops and provides other services including delivery, were down 10% in premarket trading.
Global e-commerce growth has eased from the frenetic pace seen during the pandemic when brick-and-mortar retailers set up an online presence to reach stuck-at-home customers.
To counter the slowdown, Shopify is ramping up investments to set up new warehouses in the United States designed to deliver in two days or less, and widen its delivery network to better compete with larger rivals including Amazon.com.
Founded in 2017, Deliverr’s logistics network delivers more than a million orders per month for thousands of merchants across the United States, the company said.
Separately, the company reported a 22% jump in first-quarter revenue to $1.2 billion, nearly in line with analysts’ average estimate of $1.24 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), a widely watched metric for the e-commerce industry, was up 16% at $43.2 billion compared to a year-ago. However, this was below Wall Street’s estimate of $45.43 billion.
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sriraj Kalluvila)
