OneRail announces acquisition of Orderbot

Earlier this month, Orlando-based OneRail, a provider of final mile delivery services for enterprise shippers via a delivery fulfillment SaaS platform, announced it acquired Vancouver-based Orderbot, a provider of enterprise order management system (OMS) services.

A purchase price for the transaction was not disclosed.

OneRail officials said that this deal meshes Orderbot’s sophisticated inventory and order management capabilities with OneRail’s OmniPoint cloud-based last mile operating system and delivery network, creating a powerful end-to-end solution that streamlines fulfillment processes, reduces costs, improves order accuracy and enhances customer satisfaction.

OneRail Founder and CEO Bill Catania told LM there were various drivers for OneRail to acquire Orderbot.

“Working with our customers (retailers and product distributors), we quickly realized they face a universal challenge: identifying the optimal fulfillment location to minimize costs and maximize order accuracy,” he said. “The data sources are fragmented and often times the product information is incorrect. This flows downstream to last mile delivery and causes problems for deliveries to be completed on time and in full. Integrating Orderbot into OneRail provides our clients with a unified solution, which optimizes every step of the fulfillment process, whether e-commerce order shipping from a warehouse or DC, a localized delivery from a store or warehouse, or other store fulfillment options, including ship from store and buy online/pick up in store.”

As for the value-added for shippers, Catania described it as significant, in reducing out-of-stocks, split orders and late deliveries, while improving the end-customer experience with step-change improvements in order accuracy, fulfillment cost and visibility to products and orders from shelf to doorstep.

“Additionally, we see that the omnichannel retail market is projected to reach $37 trillion by 2027, with online sales growing to 24 percent of global retail, making the complexities in order fulfillment and delivery a significant change for operations and strategy,” he said. “Retailers that implement omnichannel strategies are 2.5 times more likely to retain customers and see a 13% increase in average order value. By going up the order stream, OneRail can help address inventory and product management issues earlier before orders even get dispatched.”

Key benefits cited by OneRail included:

Improved Customer Experience (for end customers):

• End-to-end visibility, from shelf to doorstep;
• Increased “on time, in full” fulfillment rates; and
• More flexible shipping options, including parcel and in-store pick-up

Reduced Cost of Fulfillment:

• Reduced out of stock rates, given visibility to inventory by store and warehouse location(s);
• Reduced instances of “split orders”, whereby a shipper must execute more than (1) shipment to fulfill an order; and 
• Improved order accuracy and on-time delivery, powered by advanced algorithms to determine the best fulfillment location, shipping modes and delivery route

When asked how OneRail previously handled the tasks and services Orderbot provides prior to this acquisition, Catania said OneRail did not previously handle the tasks and services that Orderbot provides.

Instead, he noted, OneRail has relied upon legacy systems that are not connected to last mile optimization capabilities to determine things such as order and inventory sourcing and order routing. 

“OneRail’s cloud-based platform, OmniPoint, features an open API and is integrated with systems such as order management systems (OMS) or enterprise resource platforms (ERP) and receives product data through those integrations,” he said. “Going forward, OneRail will provide enhanced decision-making for the legacy systems in place in order to create incremental value for shippers.” 

Orderbot Founder & CEO Marianne Zakhour said in a statement she is thrilled to combine Orderbot’s expertise with OneRail, and to have found an ideal partner that shares its values and goals to take the company to the next level.

“Our joint solution ushers in a new era of real-time product and delivery data that will empower businesses of all sizes to achieve perfect order fulfillment, enhancing their ability to fulfill orders faster with more accuracy and efficiencies than were ever possible before,” she said.