Apps that send packages with the Shippo API

Our product is the API and we’re very much focusing on letting developers build on top of it. Comparing shipping APIs is like an iceberg, you need to look below the water to see the difference.

Let's start with the technical stuff.

1. We've actively taken the route of having deep, certified carrier integrations with each of the shipping providers we support. For instance, we are an USPS ePostage partner, being one of the only 3 companies with a direct connection with the USPS (http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y16/m03/i17/s02). This means that we don't rely on any other APIs to generate USPS rates, labels etc. ensuring that our uptime is more stable (https://status.goshippo.com/) and less dependent on other systems.

2. We've built out an internal engine that generates shipping rates (and soon, labels) locally. This means that even if carrier APIs go down, you can generate rates through Shippo.

3. Being partners with carriers and forming good relationships means that we are able to get our customers better support with them. For instance, we're able to help connect customers to local USPS and DHL reps to help them better manage real-life ops. From a developer perspective, issues that we bring up are also expedited because we know who to go to.

4. We aggregate shipping volume across our platform to help negotiate for discounts with carriers. When you start with Shippo, you don't need an account to start shipping, we set you up with master accounts immediately (but of course, you can plug your own in).

The big picture stuff.

Our goal is to be there from a business' first order, all the way to being directly connected to their system and warehouses as they grow. This means working with both business/ops people and developers.

1. For SMBs/business/ops people, they can use our interface, which is built directly on top of the API, to access all the awesome things. They can manually upload orders, CSVs or use our shipping app on platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, etc.

2. For developers, all shipments created through the API automatically are synced to the dashboard. You won't need to build your own interface from scratch. Anyone can start manage shipping right away.

We want to make shipping easy for everyone - no matter what size your business is, or who you are at a company. Building an API to make this happen is the best way to do it at this day-and-age, but we believe that it's important to also make the power that the API provides accessible to everyone.

OK. Thanks for the reply. So that might be a continually updated value, as opposed to an originally scheduled date? As a seller we have an interest in knowing when a package is delivered later than originally expected. I'm doing some programatic, carrier-specific things to monitor this internally, but would be interested in finding a way to this through something like Shippo's API. Basically, show me delivered and undelivered shipments that are beyond the originally scheduled/promised delivery date. Possible?

We have a tracking analytics API for this at EasyPost that'll do the analysis - feel free to reach out to me for the details: my username at easypost.

I like the data science angle where they're using their large number of deliveries to make predictions for customers on when packages will arrive depending on carrier, route, day/time. Would be nice for a future blog post to show some stats on how accurate their predictions are.

Hey sedzia - from shippo here, saw your comment.

We actually just published this piece on Mattermark on how we sustained the business and build up our API in the early days. https://mattermark.com/focused-long-tail-get-traction-enterp...

Doesn't necessarily have benchmarks, but maybe the story will trigger some ideas.