Jun 18, 2022 10:10:00 PM | Payment & Shipping Why Shippo Is The Best Multi-Carrier Shipping Platform?

Table of contents:

1. What is Shippo
2. Shippo’s key features
3. Shippo’s pricing plan
4. Author’s verdict

Shippo is derived from the Japanese word for "tail." This represents the idea of Shippo as being the "tail" or finishing touch of the eCommerce process. And, in many ways, this is accurate - Shippo makes it simple and efficient for business owners to manage their shipping and, as a result, improve their customer experience.

Recently, Shoplazza, the global leading SaaS eCommerce platform, has partnered with Shippo to offer better and more efficient shipping solutions to our 360,000 global merchants. 

Useful articles:

1. Find out Canada Post’s package size guidance when you’re printing shipping labels at Shippo.
2. Find out USPS package dimensions when you’re printing shipping labels at Shippo. (coming soon)
3. Find out how Canada Post's small business solutions may benefit your business.

What is Shippo

Shippo, situated in San Francisco, was formed in 2013 and has over 35,000 brand clients and over 100 million yearly shipments. It is a cloud platform that provides shipping related solutions for companies of different sizes and shapes that intend to offer a better and unique customer experience through a more efficient shipping process. They also interface with a number of prominent SaaS eCommerce platforms, such as Shoplazza, Shopify and Bigcommerce, to simplify every bit of the process and maximize the productivity for eCommerce business owners to handle their shipping requirements, from printing shipping labels to tracking shipments, and as well as to managing the customer experience.

Shippo is derived from the Japanese word for "tail." This represents the idea of Shippo as being the "tail" or finishing touch of the eCommerce process. And, in many ways, this is accurate - Shippo makes it simple and efficient for business owners to manage their shipping and, as a result, improve their customer experience.

One of the most impressive facts about Shippo is the number of brand clients they have. As being one of the most popular shipping solutions available, this number is only going to continue to grow as Shippo continues to integrate with more and more prominent SaaS eCommerce platforms and merchants.

But, it's not just the number of customers that Shippo has that makes it so impressive. It's also the wide range of shipping solutions that they provide. From printing shipping labels to tracking shipments, Shippo helps business owners manage every aspect of the shipping process. And this not only improves the customer experience but also maximizes productivity for eCommerce business owners.

Shippo’s key features

Now, let's look into the exact reasons why Shippo is a high adhesive shipping platform to that many eCommerce platforms and merchants. What is their secret? What key features do merchants benefit from day-to-day business operations?

Shipping Solutions

First and foremost, What do shipping solution software vendors offer?

Of course, they should supply shipping rate services, shipping solutions, and shipment tracking services. 

Shippo allows you to create, customize, and print shipping labels for your orders from anywhere you work and ship them whenever you want. If you ship with Canada Post, USPS or DHL Express, you may also arrange shipments to be picked up so you don’t have to spend time travelling to one of their facilities, but the availability of the order pick-up services depends on the service range from a particular shipping carrier. Shippo also allows you to print additional labels, such as return labels and customized packaging slips. The offering of a return label has been proven to be a very effective strategy for building customer loyalty and displaying brand confidence, also the capacity of handling after-services.

The Shippo platform enables you to compare several carriers’ prices to obtain the best bargain for your shipments. Furthermore, according to their website, Shippo provides discounts of up to 90% off. Shippo also offers address validation to help you minimize the chance of items being returned or not being delivered.

Shippo is now partnering with the majority of major global shipping carriers, so you’re sure to discover your preferred shipping method with Shippo at Shoplazza. Shippo collaborates with the following companies for nationwide delivery in different geographical territories:

• United States Postal Service
• FedEx
• FedEx SmartPost
• UPS
• UPS Mail Innovations
• Canada Post
• Australia Post
• CouriersPlease
• Deutsche Post
• DHL Germany
• DHL eCommerce
• Fastway
• GLS France
• GLS Germany
• Hermes
• Mondial Relay
• Newgistics
• Parcel Force Worldwide
• RR Donnelley
• Sendle

Shippo also works with a number of carriers for international shipment, as well as tracking-specific organizations. If a carrier or customs needs any documents for pre-approval or customer clearing process, Shippo will locate and pre-fill all of the relevant information. When appropriate, the merchants may also be required to pre-fill the shipment weight and insurance amount.

Global Shipment Tracking

Shippo provides powerful shipment tracking features, including real-time updates and an expected arrival time (ETA). As a result, online shopping customers may plan for delivery for their peace of mind.

In addition, merchants may use standardized tracking to make the delivery process similar regardless of which carriers merchants use. And even if merchants ship packages outside of Shippo, merchants can track them using Shippo. Merchants can also use Shippo to build branded tracking pages and personalized email alerts to keep consistent with their consumers.

Shippo is a potent tool; another example online shoppers can use is tracking their packages and planning for their delivery. Merchants can use Shippo to build branded order-tracking pages and personalized email alerts to keep their customers informed of their package's progress. Additionally, merchants can use standardized tracking services to make the delivery process similar regardless of their carriers.

Manage the returns

While many merchants do hope their consumers retain everything bought from them, that is unlikely to be the case. However, by providing fast and easy-to-do returns, merchants can still provide a great experience for those clients and enhance the probability that they will buy with their brands again. Shippo empowers merchants to create return labels for all of the orders as well as pay for the labels for any shipments merchants make outside of Shippo. Furthermore, merchants will only be charged for labels after a consumer uses them.

If you're an online business owner, it's more likely that you must be familiar with the importance of returns or after-sales. According to a recent study by the US National Retail Federation, nearly half of US consumers who shop online say they would not buy from a retailer again if they had a poor returns experience.

Making returns easy is one of the simplest ways to improve the customer experience and keep them coming back. In fact, the research carried out by UPS  found that 71% of consumers said they would shop more with a retailer that offers free returns.

With Shippo's endeavours, everything is made simplified to handle the returns as easily as possible for our customers. That's why we offer return labels for all of the placed orders, as well as labels for any shipments you make outside of Shippo. And the best part? merchants only pay for labels after a consumer uses them.

Platform Integration

Shippo collaborates with a variety of different vendors to help business owners optimize their daily operations, such as eCommerce platforms, marketplaces, inventory management apps, financial software, and more.

Shoplazza is one of Shippo’s most popular partners along with many others, such as Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, Squarespace, WooCommerce, GoDaddy, ChannelAdvisor, Commerce7, Virid, CubeCart, ePages, Selz, Craft Commerce, Magento, Spree Commerce, Arcadier, Reaction Commerce, Volusion, and Stripe are their other eCommerce platform partners. 

At Shoplazza, merchants can instantly synchronize orders from their Shoplazza featured store building system, create shipping labels, compare shipping prices, and print labels when they utilize one of these systems. You may also import orders to Shippo using a CSV file or the orders endpoint (API) from the Shoplazza platform. 

Data-centric operation

Since you started using Shippo, how much money have you spent on shipping?

To answer this question, we'll take a look at Shippo's analytics and reporting features. These features track how much you've spent on shipments, either since you started using Shippo or for a specific time period. The average price per package is also displayed, as well as the number of labels purchased daily, weekly, monthly, or for another time period.

This data is valuable for understanding your shipping costs and trends over time. For example, if you see that your average price per package is increasing, you may want to investigate why and find ways to reduce your shipping costs. Alternatively, if you see that the number of labels you're purchasing is decreasing, you may be able to save money by using a different shipping service.

Overall, the analytics and reporting features in Shippo provide you with valuable information about your shipping operations. Use this data to make informed decisions about your shipping strategy and save money on your shipping costs.

Shippo’s featured customer service

Shippo provides different paths for customers and interested parties to obtain assistance. In fact, we utilized their online chat option twice while writing our Shippo review and were able to talk live with a genuine person each time. The replies were prompt and detailed, and the customer support staff were kind and competent. To address commonly asked questions and provide educational materials, Shippo also provides a help center, resource center, developer resources, and a Shippo blog. 

Shippo’s pricing plan

Shippo incredibly offers three simple price plans based on the possible number of orders you may have per month, with the pay-as-you-go plan being a commitment-free alternative with no monthly membership charge. You pay $0.05 per label plus the cost of mailing with this option, also with email assistance, USPS savings, and an unlimited label volume.

The Professional plan from Shippo is the next choice, and it may be modified based on your shipping volume. Professional subscriptions include no per-label fees, the ability to build a customized customer experience, five user accounts, USPS savings, and email and live chat support. Each Professional plan includes a monthly subscription fee that grows based on the number of labels you’ll need each month. The most affordable option is $10 a month for 75 or less labels, followed by $10, $25, $35, $50, $75, $100, and $125 for over 7,500 labels every month.

Author’s Verdict

Shippo is a powerful tool if you’re searching for software to assist you in optimizing your daily business operations and free up your time for other priorities. Shippo allows you to print shipping labels, monitor progress, communicate with your customers, facilitate returns, analyze data, and much more.

What each business owner is looking for is different, so if you’re not sure whether Shippo is the right fit for you, join up for their free trial to test-drive their software before you commit. 

Sign up today to get a 15% discount! Turn dreams into actions at Shoplazza!