"Currently, for a consumer or small business to send packages the following needs to happen: buy packing materials, pack the order, drive to shipping carrier, wait in line, and pay."
Not really. You do need packing materials.. but Endicia, Stamps.com, and even the USPS website will let you print postage. And you can request a free pickup through the usps website.
Agreed. Not only is USPS pickup free (as well as others), but depending on the method of shipping (USPS Priority, UPS, FedEx), the packing material could also be free.
The question now begs whether the benefits of their service warrants the extra cost?
The recent surge in physical shipping startups is interesting, but concerning as well. How can these new companies with limited funds afford to be sending drivers around to pickup packages and visit various locations? I think yesterday there was a company that would come pickup your mail from your mailbox. How is that possibly sustainable? And how can it scale to anywhere beyond maybe San Francisco? It just seems like a very lofty goal.
By being profitable on every transaction from day 1. I can't speak to other shipping startups but we make good margins after paying our delivery drivers.
If this works in SF it will most likely work in other major cities. Shipping stuff sucks everywhere.
The rise of Fab.com thefancy.com and the other design websites that sell physical products that the owners ship have motivated startups to make fulfillment more efficient I think.
Fulfillment is the biggest pain in the ass of a business. You won't understand until you have to do it yourself. Even 10 packages can take an hour from beginning to end. So a few startups caught on and the rest were inspired to offer solutions as well.
I personally can't use Shyp because I have a sweet & easy setup already.
1) I have all my shipping supplies in the basement (boxes stacked to the ceiling).
2) I pack my orders (from DayOnePP.com) and buy postage using Stamps.com and print it out on sticky labels using my laser printer.
3) As long as 1 box is Priority Mail the USPS will pick up for free the next day. She's usually here at 3pm so I know when to be ready.
4) If not, there's always a post office within 5 minutes that has a 24/hour package drop off container. I just run through that before work and drop off all the boxes I've got.
It literally cannot get easier. I don't wait in line for anything and still get the cheapest prices on postage by using the online discounts that stamps.com(& PayPal Shipping & Pitney Bowes Smart Postage & Endicia offer) .
I think more coincidence. EasyPost and TryPaper both started around the same time (Q3 2013). Nothing specific on the USPS side has happened.
That being said, one thing we've seen, is as companies have invested more and more in digital delivery, they've 'de-invested' in their physical print & mail production, so it makes a lot of off load it to a S(oftware)+S(ervices) model.
I feel that doing an API this way begs for a middle man to make an app that normal people can actually use to do shipping in their business.
Why, if I want to ship things to people as my business, would I implement some software myself using this rather than buy an existing offering?
Am I missing something? Shipping and accepting credit cards are completely different, I know this API concept works for Stripe, but I fail to see how it works well for shipping.
Another downside to your app is that it's on the iPhone platform, and I use Blackberry.
If you had a way for me to use a normal digital camera with my PC it would help get me on board.
There was some other new service here on HN recently that was called 'Sold' for selling stuff but it only worked on a certain platform I didn't have a device for, too- so I guess its not uncommon for startups to exclude whole market segments by device ownership.
I don't think it's a matter of them choosing to not work with Blackberry users, it's a matter of trade offs between time and resources. As a startup, you may only have time to build one great app for one platform and iOS was the chosen one.
To come to that decision, it was probably a factor of what you know and also some insight into the customer base. For example, maybe iOS users tend to be more likely to pay a premium for convenience or that in San Francisco, iOS penetration is higher than Android, etc etc.
If the product picks up traction, I will bet that their next move is to port to Android, then web, then maybe ... maybe windows phone and blackberry.
We have a solution! We are launching with both a web and iPhone app. Our initial users demanded a way to access from the web. Usually from their office or when they are putting together their ecommerce orders.
I'm still waiting on my invite. I saw some ads on FB advertising it and decided to try, but have been waiting since. I hate the Post Office and would love to this us.
Glad to hear! Right now we're slowly taking on beta users, but we'll be ramping up significantly over the next while. Looking forward to having you on board and getting your feedback!
We have custom bags that have heavy padding on the inside. We have designed them to transport fragile items. If multiple items are going in the same package, we bubble wrap each individually on site.
We take these bags with contents to our warehouse where we professional package all items for transport.
[+] [-] rgbrenner|12 years ago|reply
Not really. You do need packing materials.. but Endicia, Stamps.com, and even the USPS website will let you print postage. And you can request a free pickup through the usps website.
That's your real competition...
[+] [-] kevingibbon|12 years ago|reply
Absolutely! However USPS only does pickups from 10-2 M-S. You need to be there or leave the package outside.
We will be soon adding support for UPS, Fedex, Ontrac and a bunch of other regional shipping company. Ship through Shyp and we handle everything.
[+] [-] j79|12 years ago|reply
The question now begs whether the benefits of their service warrants the extra cost?
[+] [-] cddotdotslash|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] kevingibbon|12 years ago|reply
If this works in SF it will most likely work in other major cities. Shipping stuff sucks everywhere.
[+] [-] hayksaakian|12 years ago|reply
Did USPS open up some regulation or something, what's going on?
[+] [-] ChrisNorstrom|12 years ago|reply
Fulfillment is the biggest pain in the ass of a business. You won't understand until you have to do it yourself. Even 10 packages can take an hour from beginning to end. So a few startups caught on and the rest were inspired to offer solutions as well.
I personally can't use Shyp because I have a sweet & easy setup already.
1) I have all my shipping supplies in the basement (boxes stacked to the ceiling).
2) I pack my orders (from DayOnePP.com) and buy postage using Stamps.com and print it out on sticky labels using my laser printer.
3) As long as 1 box is Priority Mail the USPS will pick up for free the next day. She's usually here at 3pm so I know when to be ready.
4) If not, there's always a post office within 5 minutes that has a 24/hour package drop off container. I just run through that before work and drop off all the boxes I've got.
It literally cannot get easier. I don't wait in line for anything and still get the cheapest prices on postage by using the online discounts that stamps.com(& PayPal Shipping & Pitney Bowes Smart Postage & Endicia offer) .
[+] [-] jspaur|12 years ago|reply
That being said, one thing we've seen, is as companies have invested more and more in digital delivery, they've 'de-invested' in their physical print & mail production, so it makes a lot of off load it to a S(oftware)+S(ervices) model.
[+] [-] ctdonath|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bradfa|12 years ago|reply
Why, if I want to ship things to people as my business, would I implement some software myself using this rather than buy an existing offering?
Am I missing something? Shipping and accepting credit cards are completely different, I know this API concept works for Stripe, but I fail to see how it works well for shipping.
[+] [-] a_c_s|12 years ago|reply
I work on an internal company application and it would be great if people could purchase & print postage from within the application.
[+] [-] cdvonstinkpot|12 years ago|reply
If you had a way for me to use a normal digital camera with my PC it would help get me on board.
There was some other new service here on HN recently that was called 'Sold' for selling stuff but it only worked on a certain platform I didn't have a device for, too- so I guess its not uncommon for startups to exclude whole market segments by device ownership.
[+] [-] calbear81|12 years ago|reply
To come to that decision, it was probably a factor of what you know and also some insight into the customer base. For example, maybe iOS users tend to be more likely to pay a premium for convenience or that in San Francisco, iOS penetration is higher than Android, etc etc.
If the product picks up traction, I will bet that their next move is to port to Android, then web, then maybe ... maybe windows phone and blackberry.
[+] [-] kevingibbon|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] askedrelic|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iamjoshuascott|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] groby_b|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kevingibbon|12 years ago|reply
We take these bags with contents to our warehouse where we professional package all items for transport.
[+] [-] nolite|12 years ago|reply