A company called ShippingEasy wants to make it super easy for low-volume sellers to buy postage online and print shipping labels, and on Wednesday launched the EasyShip widget. Unlike its robust ShippingEasy solution, which lets merchants pull orders from multiple channels into one dashboard to manage, the EasyShip widget resides right on the marketplace or platform where merchants are selling.
EasyShip is designed to make it fast and easy for low-volume sellers to print shipping labels, and unlike purchasing postage at USPS Click n Ship, for example, sellers don’t need to create a USPS account, and they don’t need to copy and paste addresses into an online form.
Single-channel sellers who ship fewer than 50 or 100 packages/month don’t necessarily need a robust shipping solution, ShippingEasy CEO Katie May told EcommerceBytes. But the EasyShip widget still provides numerous benefits such solutions offer.
- Sellers receive discounted postage in the form of USPS Commercial Base pricing.
- Sellers don’t have to set up an account with USPS or with third-party solutions. (No ShippingEasy account is required either.)
- It’s quick and easy – all of the order information is automatically populated into the EasyShip widget when the merchant presses the EasyShip button in the marketplace or platform’s admin panel.
- There are fewer mistakes, since there’s no need for the seller to enter addresses and information into a form (the addresses are editable in the event the seller receives special instructions from the buyer). May said data-entry can be fraught with error, with expensive downstream consequences for shippers.
May said the company plans to add more features with time. For example, its ShippingEasy solution presents merchants with the cheapest rate based on weight and destination, and the company plans to add that feature to the EasyShip widget in the future.
All too often, online sellers must deal with buyers who purchase multiple items and expect a combined-shipping discount. Would the seller simply adjust the weight of the package upwards and deal with any multi-order discount they offer separately from the shipping solution, we asked May? “We do have a “duplicate recipient” filter within the ShippingEasy app to help sellers find multiple orders headed for the same recipient and then a “combine order” feature,” May said.
As for how the widget handles combined shipping, “it’s a bit simpler at this stage and doesn’t have that same functionality,” May said. “What you suggested is the exact right workaround. They would adjust the weight on one of the orders, print the label and then ship all in the same box.”
There’s one aspect of the tool that may frustrate sellers who believe it could be a good solution for them: right now, only Americommerce and SynCommerce have integrated EasyShip into their platforms.
The company’s ShippingEasy solution is integrated with many marketplaces and platforms, including eBay, Shopify, and Bigcommerce, so it likely a matter of time before the widget becomes available on more platforms. (It’s a simple process for platforms to sign up and embed lines of JavaScript to their site, May said.)
She also hopes demand from merchants will spur marketplaces to add the widget. It’s a defensive move for marketplaces and platforms, she said, since it adds value for single-channel sellers. And the company is offering early partners an additional benefit to help accelerate deployment of the widget.
While the EasyShip widget is free, ShippingEasy’s cloud-based shipping solution for higher-volume, multichannel sellers offers a free plan for merchants sending fewer than 50 packages/month and plans costing anywhere from $29 – $49/month.
May estimates there are over 700,000 sellers who ship fewer than 100/packages a month, and that’s who they’re targeting. “EasyShip is an easily deployed add-on for ecommerce platforms and marketplaces looking for a native solution. Online sellers can print discounted USPS shipping labels without ever creating a carrier account, completely removing that friction for ecommerce merchants. For the platform, it’s a few lines of JavaScript and minimal development work.”
More information is available on the ShippingEasy website.
