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Free Address Verification by EasyPost

blog.geteasypost.com

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Re: Free Address Verification by EasyPost

#31

Post by toomuchtodo »

marcrosoft wrote: post #28
tbrooks wrote: post #5

Looks like Shipping/Postage APIs are about to heat up: https://www.postmaster.io/

I doubt it. Carrier terms of service make the SaaS model for this difficult if not impossible. I also don't understand why anyone would pay a percentage per label when the carriers offer free APIs. Sure the APIs are a pain but there are good libraries out there for them.

I could see people using this to get up and running quickly, but then flushing out their system to integrate directly with carriers once size dictates.

Example: DailyCred lets you drop in authentication on your site, but when you get big enough (or have the time resources), you can dump out the bcrypted password hashes into your own built-out auth system.

MVP/Prototype->Iterate->Grow. These services that are reducing pain points let you get the first parts done fast, so you can get to the growth stage faster.

Re: Free Address Verification by EasyPost

#32

Post by dminor »

It's nice to see startups tackling shipping APIs - they really are ugly.

What I'd really like to see is something that reaches down to the inventory level, I.e. I'm shipping these 5 SKUs, what's the best price among the carriers I support.

It's a complex problem (from experience) but it would provide real value to smaller shops who want to implement economy shipping but don't want to deal with all the APIs.

Re: Free Address Verification by EasyPost

#33

Post by joncalhoun »

dminor wrote: post #32

It's nice to see startups tackling shipping APIs - they really are ugly. What I'd really like to see is something that reaches down to the inventory level, I.e. I'm shipping these 5 SKUs, what's the best price among the carriers I support. It's a complex problem (from experience) but it would provide real value to smaller shops who want to implement economy shipping but don't want to deal with all the APIs.

The idea is awesome, but handling products via a SKU is hard. For instance, if you had the SKU 517030000077284 (a Gibson Les Paul) how would you determine the package size that each customer individually uses? Or determine how much extra weight was added by packaging to keep the guitar safe?

I would love to solve this problem but it is definitely a hard one to solve.

Re: Free Address Verification by EasyPost

#34

Post by joncalhoun »

ssi1111 wrote: post #21

I think you should have a form where users can try out your address checks. This is just so devs can quickly make sure if you know the difference between good and a bad address before they try out the api.

If you want to try some out via curl it is pretty quick. See https://www.geteasypost.com/docs#addresses

I do agree tho and a quick form to test out all of the APIs is in the works so users can quickly see what the API will return.

Re: Free Address Verification by EasyPost

#35

Post by jstreebin »

joncalhoun wrote: post #33
dminor wrote: post #32

It's nice to see startups tackling shipping APIs - they really are ugly. What I'd really like to see is something that reaches down to the inventory level, I.e. I'm shipping these 5 SKUs, what's the best price among the carriers I support. It's a complex problem (from experience) but it would provide real value to smaller shops who want to implement economy shipping but don't want to deal with all the APIs.

The idea is awesome, but handling products via a SKU is hard. For instance, if you had the SKU 517030000077284 (a Gibson Les Paul) how would you determine the package size that each customer individually uses? Or determine how much extra weight was added by packaging to keep the guitar safe? I would love to solve this problem but it is definitely a hard one to solve.

Or even worse, say it was a BC Rich, or a Dean, but only certain models that would require the package being just a tad bit wider?? :)

Re: Free Address Verification by EasyPost

#38

Post by pbreit »

scoot wrote: post #6

Is it safe to assume that the developers have forgotten that there's a very big world beyond the US borders? The title doesn't say so, the blog post doesn't either, and the website makes no reference to the countries supported. But as the API doesn't take a country field, it's the only conclusion I can come to.

It's safer to assume that geo-based services posted to HN are likely US-centric and for good reasons (company is US-based, US is huge market, expanding outside the US is hard, etc).

Re: Free Address Verification by EasyPost

#39

Post by jstreebin »

callmeed wrote: post #8

IDEA: Stripe + EasyPost for an EBay that doesn't suck or price-gouge. You put stuff up for sale/auction, the payments go straight to your Stripe account and shipping is calculated/charged fairly. Emulate AirBnB for handling trust issues (reviews, email/phone verification and social graph connections). Start with a niche like used Apple products.

I like it!

Re: Free Address Verification by EasyPost

#40

Post by jstreebin »

scoot wrote: post #17
jstreebin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No! We're a US company so that's where we're starting but we'll be working on international next.

Then please make that clear in your blog post and home-page.

Added to homepage (bottom right)

Added to blog post

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