ST. GEORGE — Zonos, a St. George software company, has been awarded a United States Postal Service contract in what the company calls a “pivotal” deal.
Zonos technology will streamline the USPS international commerce by simplifying it, Daniel Johnson, Zonos co-founder and chief revenue officer, said.
“This is a pivotal moment for Zonos because it validates our product, especially with the USPS delivering the majority of international shipments or mail,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the new arrangement with the postal service would also bring more jobs to Zonos’ St. George location.
“We’re excited about Tech Ridge and creating opportunities for people to live, work and play in St. George. This is going to help our company in terms of creating new opportunities to hire employees in St. George,” Johnson said.
Johnson said USPS initially approached Zonos three years ago when the agency was looking for a solution for cross-border shipments. Zonos will help calculate the import duties and taxes on behalf of USPS.
“A lot of people may have the perception that the post office just delivers letters or is only doing domestic shipments,” Johnson said. “But there are a lot of third parties and/or postal agencies and even private companies that leverage the USPS postal network for cross-border shipping.”
USPS handles 46% of the world’s mail, he said.
Johnson said cross-border commerce happens when shipping crosses the border of two different countries. Often this occurs when people or companies ship outside the U.S. He said countries outside the states that use the USPS network can benefit from Zonos’ cross-border commerce software.
The service will utilize Application Programming Interface (API), a type of software that allows two applications to talk to each other. The APIs will power USPS services with new features to calculate duty, tax quotes and automate international shipments. USPS integration with the Zonos APIs will provide customers with transparency and insight into the total cost for international shipments.
Zonos Founder and CEO Clint Reid said hundreds of thousands of small and large companies ship internationally with USPS.
“We are grateful for the trust the Postal Service has put in Zonos’ cross-border enablement capabilities,” Reid said. “We look forward to helping build and power USPS’ global technology solutions.”
Johnson said the new contract also creates an opportunity for the St. George company to work with other postal agencies worldwide. Zonos recently opened an office in Gold Coast, Australia. All carriers and consolidators can use Zonos services and postal solutions as a landed cost and cross-border technology provider.
“What’s exciting to us is this opens a lot of doors for us to do similar integrations with other postal agencies abroad,” Johnson said.
When people or businesses ship items internationally, there are usually more fees than just shipping. Johnson said Zonos can calculate these fees without giving up control of a business or wasting time with manual quotes.
“Part of being transparent is making sure that all parties involved in a transaction know what all of the fees are opposed to just the shipping fees,” he said.
According to the company’s website, Zonos provides software that allows online retailers, marketplaces, logistics providers, trade organizations, online marketplaces and postal carriers to scale their businesses globally. Zonos has offices in St. George and Australia.
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