Essendant has hired a new executive to help speed things along. The distribution company is pivoting its business to focus on digital commerce.

Essendant is a national wholesale distributor with consolidated annual net sales of more than $5 billion. The company’s new corporate emphasis is on a new program Essendant called Connected Commerce.

New Essendant executive

Now, the company has named a new executive: Patrick Allard as president of Essendant Fulfillment Services. In this role, Allard will head up the company’s fulfillment services (3PL) expansion initiative and accelerate its Connected Commerce services business.

Patrick Allard, president of fulfillment services, Essendant

Allard comes to Essendant from Radial Inc., where he was chief commercial officer. He was responsible for leading the company’s commercial strategy and revenue operations. Radial is a multinational ecommerce fulfillment services company.

Prior to joining Radial, Allard served as the senior vice president and chief revenue officer of global ecommerce at Pitney Bowes. He also spent 12 years with Newgistics, where he was responsible for the development of sales and go-to-market strategy.

He will report to interim CEO David Boone, who recently took part in a keynote fireside chat at EnvisionB2B on Sept. 12 in Chicago.

Connected Commerce brings together Essendant’s capabilities to serve B2B sellers more effectively. It also seeks to efficiently drive visibility through a comprehensive platform of digital services that include:

• A connection to most major marketplaces, B2B platforms, and web stores. It also connects to nine of the top 10 national retailers.
• Deep ecommerce service and channel expertise for more than 1,300 major brands and 560 suppliers. This comes through 20 online storefronts and marketplaces.
• Fulfillment expertise and fast delivery. This includes next-day delivery to 98% of the U.S. with a national network of more than 20 fulfillment centers.
• A big focus will be on serving companies across the spectrum in business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C).

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