One of the more important aspects of an ecommerce business is shipping. If a company doesn’t have the right platform in place, getting the item a customer has ordered to them can be a problem, which can translate to high customer attrition rates.
Shippo was established to provide a new level of efficiency when shipping while addressing the operational cost and using it as a tool to increase sales and customer retention, this according to Shan Lian, Marketing Manager at Shippo. In a nutshell, the company finds the cheapest way to ship ecommerce products.
How Shippo Finds The Cheapest Way to Ship Ecommerce Products
The company has created a single system that brings multiple carriers together with an easy to integrate API. This removes the restrictive bulky legacy code of traditional shippers. And for the vast majority of small businesses that do their own shipping, this translates to more time focused on their core competencies instead of worrying about what carrier to choose.
With the Shippo API and dashboard in place, all you have to do is enter the shipments and it will automatically generate the best prices from the biggest brands in shipping. Whether it is the USPS, FedEx, DHL or GLS and the Australia Post, you have 15 carriers to choose from for local, national and international shipping.
The volume of shipping Shippo provides has allowed the company to negotiate for the best prices possible. A clear example of this is the 50 percent off of retail shipping its customers will get from USPS. This type of discount can give small businesses the ability to start offering free shipping to compete with large online retailers.
In addition to simplifying shipping, Shippo just launched a new Tracking API to empower customers with more information about the status of the items they order. But instead of going to the website of the shipper to track their package, this new API keeps the customer on the company site. This means more visits to the site, which can be used to promote new products and services.
If your ecommerce business uses multiple shippers, the process of tracking each package can now be accomplished with one API in a single dashboard without having to jump from site to site.
Another benefit of the Tracking API is it can be modified to create more options by businesses and developers. A couple of the apps Shippo highlighted at the recent Developer Week hackathon enable customers to receive notifications on Facebook and SMS whenever there is a change in the status of a shipment.
Until now, shipping has been one of the more complicated aspects of operating an ecommerce business. Finding the right carrier, the cheapest rate and tracking solution once meant spending time going to multiple sites in order to give their customers the best possible option. Shippo has removed all of those steps with a single integrated tool any ecommerce company can deploy right away, in order to find the cheapest way to ship ecommerce products quickly.
Image: Small Business Trends via Shippo
Aira Bongco
Really interesting service. I think that it is really valuable especially at this age where people are more comfortable buying stuff from the Internet. Shipping has become more in demand than ever.
Michael Guta
Hi Aira,
It is a great tool for everyone, but for small businesses it is extremely valuable.
Shipping has always been so fragmented. I’m glad that a company figured out how to aggregate the different carriers and bundle all the shipping together so that even small shippers can get the best rates. Very cool!
Michael Guta
Hi Robert,
Considering how much time small businesses spend in trying to find the right shipper, Shippo definitely looks like it has all the answers in one platform.
jaslynn
Good to know about it… This would be very useful for all ecommerce people.
Jaslynn, Ecbilla
Michael Guta
Hi Jaslynn,
It makes shipping a lot easier and cheaper.