Dutch logistics company Docdata sells ecommerce arm

Docdata, a Dutch company that’s specialized in e-fulfilment, return logistics and online payment services, has sold its ecommerce arm to the American company Ingram Micro for 175 million dollars (€153.4 million). Docdata claims becoming part of Ingram will give the company the necessary scale to compete with other ecommerce service providers.

The acquisition isn’t set in stones yet, shareholders still need to greenlight the transaction, the company explains. But if all goes as planned, Ingram Micro will be the owner of an important part of Docdata’s business as well as its revenue. The entitities Ingram will acquire are DOCdata Nederland B.V. and DOCdata International B.V, which are part of the wider Docdata group, a company that also works in the field of industrial-grade processing machines.

Continue competing with other ecommerce service providers
By becoming part of Ingram, Docdata claims it will get the necessary scale to continue competing with other ecommerce service providers. “In the early years of the ecommerce market, we added considerable value to our clients, enabling them to grow – often spectacularly – thanks to our flexibility, inventiveness, scalability and short communication lines”, the company explains in the press release. “But the market is clearly changing. Where in the early years, it mainly consisted of start-up, now it’s professionalizing further and size becomes an increasingly important factor for ecommerce service providers.” According to Docdata, now it’s not about growing with the customer anymore, but “setting up an operation that needs to be able to handle large volumes as from day one.”

With the acquisition by Ingram, Docdata thinks it no longer has to limit themselves to implement no more than one or two large customers per year. “Our current and future clients will have more certainty and they will gain access to a global network of people and resources.”

About the ecommerce arm of Docdata
The ecommerce arm of Docdata handles orders for several ecommerce companies, such as Zalando, ASOS, House of Fraser and major Dutch ecommerce players Bol.com, De Bijenkorf and V&D. It handles between 125,000 and 250,000 orders every day.