Shippo, a shipping platform for eCommerce businesses, has launched Shipping Elements. A suite of embeddable shipping components that eCommerce platforms can implement into their existing user interface (UI).
Shippo says it streamlines merchants’ access to critical shipping services needed to run their business. With Shipping Elements, eCommerce platforms can offer feature-rich shipping capabilities natively to the millions of merchants they collectively serve. Merchants get access to a comprehensive shipping platform so they can fulfil their customers orders faster, cheaper and more reliably.
With the advent of Shipping Elements, however, platforms can integrate core elements of Shippo’s industry-leading platform – which provides the scale and expertise that comes with serving more than 120,000 businesses and accounting for hundreds of millions of shipments annually – directly into their own offering.
In one simple, easily integrated component, they have access to years of hard-won carrier management, compliance, logistics and route optimization functionality to bring their merchants richer, more flexible shipping services in less time and with less maintenance.
Building the shipping layer of the internet
“We’re building the shipping layer of the internet, and essential to that is making it easier and faster for platforms to integrate our shipping technology,” said Andreas Lieber, Chief Operating Officer of Shippo.
“Our entire business is solving the complicated challenges of managing e-commerce shipping – from building an intuitive shipping interface for merchants to managing dozens of carrier relationships and everything in between.
By making key elements of the Shippo platform available in the form of simple, pre-built components, we’re able to bring our shipping expertise to eCommerce platforms, online marketplaces and 3PLs that don’t have the same resources and focus dedicated to specific shipping challenges we do on a day-to-day basis. With this launch of Shipping Elements, we have an opportunity to become the go-to shipping solution for any platform. Helping merchants sell and get their products to customers, which equates to millions of new opportunities.”
Three key benefits
Shippo’s Shipping Elements are designed to solve the major challenges that platforms face in creating their own shipping function. The company says this is achieved by providing three primary benefits:
- Faster speed to market: Rather than worry about building shipping tools or understanding the business logic to build around Shippo’s APIs. Platforms simply embed workflows that will handle shipping entirely. Not only does this make shipping smoother for merchants. It also enables the platform to focus on the features for which it can add value to users.
- Rich shipping experience out of the gate for users and customers: By offering a complete shipping management solution, platforms can unburden themselves from building their own shipping tech stack for their users. They can access a streamlined, purchase-to-people fulfilment flow, reducing the time and investment required to reach their customers wherever they are.
- Carrier Integrations and Compliance: In addition to technical expertise, Shippo also provides complete management of carrier integrations and compliance; from which carrier integrations are needed. It ensures carrier compliance requirements are up to date. Shippo says its deep background saves platforms valuable time and resources.
In addition to Shipping Elements, Shippo recently released its State of Shipping Report (gated). The study chronicles both consumers’ and businesses’ current outlook on shipping. The report found that the cost of shipping is now both merchants’ and consumers’ primary concern in 2023.
Shippo suggests Shipping Elements allows platforms to empower their merchants to leverage Shippo’s expertise and relationships to choose the best and most fitting options. This includes select discounted FedEx shipping services that Shippo recently announced when it received a FedEx Platform Account.
Enterprise Times: What this means for business
According to many analysts, eCommerce sales are projected to surpass $6 trillion for the first time in 2023. As this trend continues to grow, brands and retailers demands and expectations grow with it. It’s not enough for platforms just to provide website building for eCommerce. Enterprises must provide all the mission-critical services, including payments, customer communications and marketing services.
However, shipping is often the last gasp in the eCommerce development process. However, its importance can’t be underestimated. Ultimately, if the customer does not receive their goods in a timely and presentable manner, all the other upstream processes become a waste of time.
Many platforms already have 3rd-party partnerships that allow them to provide those experiences natively. However, shipping has eluded them as a simplified embedded component. This puts platforms in the difficult position of building out their own shipping functionality. Alternatively, they can work with a third-party provider to do so from the ground up. Both options are complicated, time-consuming and expensive ongoing endeavours that put them at risk of falling behind.
Shippo’s complete suite of embeddable shipping components is designed to enable eCommerce and fulfilment logistic platforms to natively power the shipping experience. The company suggest this can be achieved in less than 30 days. This appears to be impressive as long as it ensures customers receive their gifts and products on time. Moreover, retailers are able to side-step the complexities of shipping.
