Shipping platform provider Shippo has launched a new suite of embeddable shipping components that e-commerce platforms can easily implement into their existing user interface (UI), streamlining merchants’ access to critical shipping services needed to run their business.
The new solution, called Shipping Elements, enables e-commerce platforms to feature rich shipping capabilities natively to the millions of merchants they collectively serve, and those merchants get access to the industry’s leading shipping platform so they can fulfil their customers’ orders faster, cheaper and more reliably.
The need for simplified shipping
According to Insider Intelligence figures, e-commerce sales are projected to surpass US$6 trillion for the first time in 2023, and as they continue to grow, merchant demands and expectations grow with them.
“It’s not enough for platforms just to provide website building for e-commerce, they must provide all the mission critical services including payments, customer communications and marketing services, as well. But while many platforms already have third-party partnerships that allow them to provide those experiences natively, shipping has eluded them as a simplified embedded component,” Shippo noted.
“This puts platforms in the difficult position of either building out their own shipping functionality or working with a third-party provider to do so from the ground up, both complicated, time-consuming and expensive ongoing endeavours that put them at risk of falling behind,” Shippo added.
With the advent of Shipping Elements, however, platforms can integrate core elements of Shippo’s 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, 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.
“Simple, pre-built components”
“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 e-commerce 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,” added Lieber.
In addition to Shipping Elements, Shippo recently released its State of Shipping Report, which chronicles both consumers’ and businesses’ current outlook on shipping and found that the cost of shipping is now both merchants’ and consumers’ primary concern in 2023.
The firm also recently announced that it is the first multi-carrier shipping company to receive a Platform Account from FedEx, meaning it can now offer US-based e-commerce merchants special discounted FedEx shipping services directly from its platform.
