CommerceHub, the Supply-On-Demand platform for supply chain integration and fulfillment solutions, announced it has seen strong growth in drop-ship fulfillment by merchants during 2008. In a year with overall eCommerce sales growth slowed to six percent, CommerceHub recorded significant business growth driven by increased drop-ship transactions processed by the company.

"Despite the tough economic times, CommerceHub continues to experience double-digit growth," Mike Nelsen, COO of CommerceHub stated. "We are seeing merchants utilize drop-ship fulfillment for a larger percentage of their businesses."

eCommerce sales growth in the slowing economy declined from a high of 15% in April 2008 to a negative three percent growth in November and December, as reported by comScore. With credit to purchase inventory tightening and the cost of holding inventory rising, merchants are utilizing drop-ship fulfillment to control inventory expenses and increase product selection.

"Multi-Channel merchants are realizing the high benefits and low risk that drop-ship fulfillment provides," said CEO of CommerceHub, Steve Hamlin. "It is a strategy that every online merchant should be moving toward. With the high velocity of drop shipping and high cost of holding inventory it makes no sense to own your entire inventory."

In 2008, drop-ship orders processed through the company's HYPERLINK "http://www.commercehub.com/index.html"Supply-on-Demand platform grew by 19% over 2007. The number of product SKUs available through the platform nearly doubled and CommerceHub ended the year with over 5,000 suppliers and merchants connected to its network.

eCommerce merchants use the Supply-on-Demand platform to increase product offerings, broaden markets and drive revenue without incurring inventory handling and warehousing costs. CommerceHub provides comprehensive tools to manage order processing, supply chain visibility, branding, inventory synchronization, carrier tracking, and reverse logistics. This enables a HYPERLINK "http://www.commercehub.com/platform/index.html"virtual warehousing capability whereby any supply-chain network can drop-ship products directly from the supplier to the customer, while maintaining the same degree of customer service, fulfillment performance and brand management as if they actually shipped the product from their own warehouse.

CommerceHub is a provider of fulfillment and integration solutions for retailers and wholesale distribution companies. With more than a decade of experience working with Top 25 retailers, distribution supply chains and a wide array of major brand name suppliers, CommerceHub manages more than $6 billion in goods annually on behalf of such industry leaders as Sears, MSC Industrial Direct, Kohl's, Costco, QVC, Staples, Home Depot, Best Buy, Meijer, drugstore.com, Ty's Toy Box, Toys "R" Us, Walgreens, Dell, Toshiba, Sanyo, Minolta, Gateway and Little Tikes.