Aftership Vs Easyship

1) Introduction

Any eCommerce retailer wanting to optimize their pre and post-purchase experience has undoubtedly heard of shipping management software. These technological tools are masters in streamlining the very basics of the shipping process. 

From connecting with multiple carriers, availing discounts, and generating shipping labels to managing customer expectations. In all cases, shipping software like AfterShip or EasyShip comes handy in reducing the retailer’s workload and lowering logistics costs. 

Though both of them work in the eCommerce shipping sector, however, their primary functions are pretty different. If you want to know more about AfterShip vs. Easyship, this article is the right one for you. If you would also like to invest in either of them, then read ahead without further ado!

2) About AfterShip

AfterShip is a leading shipment management software that primarily allows businesses to automate and track their packages. The platform was founded in 2012 in Texas and is presently headquartered in Austin. It is a popular shipping tool that caters to over 10,000 brands worldwide. 

AfterShip mainly focuses on regulating the post-purchase experience, including handling returns and green logistics. It also boasts a range of marketing tools focused on boosting personalization and driving traffic. 

AfterShip has also developed a special module for automating shipping functionalities like printing labels and integrating with carriers. AfterShip employs a distributed workforce of 200 people scattered in different countries. It processes more than 6 billion shipments annually. 

3) Solutions provided by AfterShip

Given the multiple trajectories in which AfterShip operates, it is no wonder that 100,000+ customers are relying on its shipping platform. So, we have curated the most striking services that AfterShip offers to merchants: 

3.1) Shipment Tracking

Shipment visibility and tracking are one of the top priorities of AfterShip. It offers an integrated tracking platform for over 1000+ carriers. And its dashboard provides automated tracking data and notifications to customers.

The tracking information is divided into key statutes and sub-statues for convenient filtering and sorting. 

Order status can also be manually altered, imported, and exported via CSV file format. AfterShip enables retailers to engage with customers through SMS, Facebook, and emails. 

It provides a drag-and-drop email editor to personalize emails and inform customers immediately if a delivery is delayed. Its tracking page is embedded with a product recommendation engine to drive customer engagement. 

3.2) Returns Center 

AfterShip is integrated with major sales channels and storefronts to manage and streamline returns. It provides a returns management portal to enable product visibility and a self-service branded returns page for customers. 

AfterShip partners with 18 carriers for reverse logistics and quickly generates returns labels for carriers like FedEx and UPS. It also allows retailers to set routing rules to minimize cost, sends proactive returns notifications to customers, and provides inventory analytics. 

3.3) Postmen

Postmen are AfterShip’s order management and shipping tool to automate the shipping workflow. Postmen have multiple tools for printing shipping labels from 88 carriers and get real-time shipping rates and delivery charges. The portal also supports international shipping demands, including connecting with multiple couriers. 

3.4) Insurance Protection

Aftership, in collaboration with InsureShield, offers shipping insurance against theft, porch piracy, loss, and damage. However, this feature is available to merchants and users in the United States. 

Insurance protection is split between retailers and customers, giving customers the right to make decisions and retain peace of mind. It also makes the claims a convenient process with resolution status visibility. 

3.5) Personalization and Marketing

AfterShip has a plethora of tools to automatize marketing and brand personalization. It offers email marketing for campaigns and newsletters, clickable pop-ups, and coupon management for Shopify stores. It also provides free tools such as announcement bars and countdown timers.

Like marketing, Aftership analyzes behavioral data to personalize product recommendations for individual customers pre and post-checkout. It also creates thank-you pages targeting upselling and cross-selling. 

4) Features of AfterShip 

• AfterShip is a leading shipment tracking solution that helps businesses improve visibility through branded tracking pages and offers actionable insights.
• It helps send notifications to customers about the status of their orders.
• It allows businesses to manage multiple carriers through a unified platform.
• It offers reports and analytics on the performance of shipments.
• It offers a returns management system to manage reverse logistics and customer refunds. It also allows businesses to build a branded returns page.
• It provides delivery date estimates and real-rate shipping rates through API integrations with carriers.

Pros:

AfterShip helps businesses improve visibility through its leading tracking capabilities. 

Cons:

Clients complain about API integrations being buggy. 

5) About EasyShip

Easyship is a shipment management software. It was developed in 2015 in the US and is headquartered in New York. It allows its clients to reach more than 220 nations and regions throughout the world. The platform is a popular cross-border shipping management solution. 

Unlike AfterShip, EasyShip is a complete pre-dispatch logistics solution that handles shipping workflows like carrier selection and shipping rate calculation. It has specific tools targeting global fulfillment and shipment management. Let’s take a look at its most demanded features below.

6) Solutions provided by EasyShip

As a shipping software, EasyShip primarily works to automate the shipping process and unlock growth opportunities in cross-border trade. Below are some of the best features that EasyShip has, distinguishing it from AfterShip.

6.1) Discounted Shipping

EasyShip is integrated with multiple leading global shipping and courier companies like USPS, FedEx, and DHL. Therefore, it gives retailers the advantage of discounted and pre-negotiated shipping rates. It can provide upto 91% off on certain courier services. 

It also has a shipping calculator to estimate real-time shipping costs and discounts based on shipment weight and destination. 

6.2) Cross-Border Shipping

By integrating with global shipping companies, EasyShip makes it convenient to ship internationally and reach a global customer base. Moreover, it offers dedicated customs clearance services and tax calculations. 

It calculates and displays upfront charges and removes the hassle of calculating taxes based on the different HS codes. With EasyShip, retailers get various shipping solutions based on their tax preferences. It automatically creates all duties and tax documents.

6.3) Checkout Optimization

To enhance the checkout experience, EasyShip displays real-time shipping rates during the checkout phase. It also provides the option for pre-filled customs documents and estimated delivery time.

These help store owners provide complete cost visibility and reduce cart abandonment. EasyShip is compatible with several marketplaces, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.

6.4) Manage Brand Experience

EasyShip places much emphasis on branding. As such, retailers get the advantage of having a branded tracking page. It showcases the order's complete journey and has an embedded customer support tool. 

EasyShip also sends email notifications to customers as soon as the order is in transit. It also updates the delivery status for retailers to monitor and adds advertising materials to landing pages and emails.

6.5) Shipping Management Tools

With EasyShip, retailers can easily manage order shipping on its dashboard. They can import orders, create shipments, and customize shipping rules to automate courier selection, delivery preferences, etc. 

eCommerce companies can generate multiple shipping labels and packing slips and get flat rate service that EasyShip automatically detects. EasyShip offers batch shipping, scanning of USPS forms, and generates analytics reports on key performance indicators.  

7) Features of EasyShip

• Easyship is a shipment management platform that allows businesses to choose from over 250 services to ship their products.
• It enables real-time shipping rate calculation. 
• It allows businesses to create unique customer experiences through branding in tracking pages and notifications.
• It enables improved visibility by allowing businesses to create tracking pages. 
• It helps create, split and merge orders while allowing users to generate labels. 
• It offers order fulfillment management tools for handling warehousing, packing, reverse logistics, and more. 

Pros:

Easyship is an affordable platform with various features coming with the default package. 

Cons:

Users have complained that once a shipment is created, information cannot be edited, and to make changes, the users have to start over. 

8) A Salient Comparison between AfterShip and EasyShip

Now that we have discussed a fair share of AfterShip and EasyShip’s features let’s look at how they differ. This will help you better understand their functions and decide which to choose. 

8.1) Shipment Tracking

When it comes to shipment tracking, both EasyShip and AfterShip are excellent choices. However, AfterShip offers a greater scope of shipment visibility than EasyShip since it is integrated with over 1000+ carriers. 

AfterShip has a more structured approach to tracking. It has created multiple filters for easy categorization and automatic carrier detection features. 

8.2) Courier Selection

EasyShip has integrated with over 250+ courier companies, and its shipping service works exceedingly well for European countries. It also offers a wide range of configuration options for automated carrier selection. 

In contrast, AfterShip offers shipment labels for 88 carriers. However, like EasyShip also offers real-time shipping rates and order management. 

8.3) International Shipping Assistance

AfterShip has a limited number of couriers for international shipping compared to EasyShip. With EasyShip, retailers can connect with 250+ internationally operating couriers and get accurate rates. Unlike AfterShip, it also handles customs clearance and tax calculation. 

8.4) Shipping Integrations

Whether AfterShip or EasyShip, both present a strong case for automating the shipping workflow and integrating with multiple eCommerce tools. EasyShip has an impressive library of integrations with marketplaces, ERPs, order management tools, WMS, and finance software. 

AfterShip, too has the capability to integrate with multiple shipping software and marketplaces like ShipStation, and Klaviyo. 

8.5) Branding and Customization

In terms of branded and customization, AfterShip takes the lead over EasyShip. It offers real-time shipment status updates and creates branded tracking pages embedded with AI-driven product recommendations. More importantly, it offers customers the ability to redirect deliveries. It also supports multiple languages for tracking.

8.6) Pricing

AfterShip has three subscription plans based on monthly shipment volume. For 100 shipments, the plan starts at $11; for 2000 shipments, it is $119; for higher amounts, the price is $239 per month. 

Unlike Aftership, EasyShip offers a free subscription plan for 50 monthly shipment volumes. For 500 shipments, the price is $29, and for 1500, it's $69. Both of the companies also have custom plans for specialized business needs.

9) Alternative and Competitor to both EasyShip and AfterShip

If you are curious about a third shipping software platform and an alternative to EasyShip and AfterShip, then ClickPost is the answer. Unlike the former, ClickPost seamlessly integrates pre and post-dispatch shipping solutions. 

It comes integrated with 200+ carriers and can integrate with any carrier the retailer chooses within a day. ClickPost offers AI-powered courier recommendations, zipcode serviceability at checkout, and real-time tracking with white-labeled tracking pages. 

Moreover, it seamlessly handles delivery and pick-up exceptions via its NDR and NPR portal. It communicates with customers in real time as soon as the courier agent marks a delivery or pickup as failed. It reschedules them according to customer convenience. 

ClickPost offers a complete returns management module, handline exchanges, cancellations, and refunds. Moreover, it provides COD reconciliation.

10) Conclusion

Both EasyShip and AfterShip are ideal shipping partners for any eCommerce company. While EasyShip is adept in managing domestic and international shipping flows, AfterShip is focused on post-purchase solutions. It has recently started with forward logistics services like carrier integrations. 

Given your business goals and needs, you can decide which software solution is your ideal partner.

11) FAQs

11.1) How is EasyShip different from AfterShip?

EasyShip is more focused on creating shipments, setting shipping automations like label creation and international shipping with discounts. AfterShip is geared towards personalizing shipment tracking and branding. It also has advertising and marketing features. 

11.2) Which is the best option between AfterShip, ClickPost, and EasyShip? 

While all three are competitive products in the market, ClickPost stands out when a comparison is drawn. ClickPost is the fastest-growing logistics intelligence software in Asia and allows businesses to manage their shipping patterns, orders, and reverse logistics through a unified platform. ClickPost offers businesses an Amazon-like shipping experience.