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1) What Is Shippo?
Shippo is a reliable shipping API that offers integration and automated order fulfillment services with widely known courier partners to streamline your fulfillment process. The API has a 99.99% uptime guarantee which can be integrated with e-commerce platforms, fulfillment centers, and popular marketplaces like eBay, Shopify, and Etsy.
Along with these services, many e-commerce merchants and platforms prefer Shippo for its unique pay-per-use billing model with automated shipping label printing and no monthly fees. With the availability of free plans and free trials, Shippo is an ideal choice for individuals and businesses that are looking to venture into the e-commerce segment.
As the API is trusted and has already been integrated with well-established courier partners like USPS, DHL, and FedEx, their services are also preferred by businesses that need international shipping support. Services like prefilled Custom forms and paperless commercial invoices make international shipping convenient. However, Shippo does not handle international returns.
Our analysis of the customer reviews and discussion with industry experts will give you a brief understanding of their services and the experience of their client base so far, so you can make an informed decision.
2) Reviews of Shippo: A Detailed Analysis of Shippo’s Features
Now that we have an understanding of Shippo’s features and services, let’s put them under a microscope and critically evaluate these features to get an idea of the pros and cons. All the information listed below has been compiled after a careful review of the discussions with the industry experts and a thorough reading of the customer reviews on various review platforms.
2.1) Multi-Carrier Integration
Multi-carrier integration can be crucial to your fulfillment operations as it will allow you to expand your customer reach and improve your delivery speed. With this integration, processes like AWB generation, generation of shipping labels, and sharing tracking details with customers can be automated.
Pros:
1. Carrier rates Comparison [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
With Shippo, you can check and compare the shipping charges of different carriers for the same shipment. This makes it easy to keep your shipping costs as low as possible.
2. International shipping support [Our Score: 3.5 out of 5]
Shippo provides logistic services through widely known courier partners like USPS, and FedEx which are known for their international shipping services. Along with that, Shippo provides services like pre-filled customs forms and paperless commercial invoices that make it convenient to ship things internationally.
3. Access to discounts with USPS, DHL [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Shippo provides flat shipping rates and access to discounts on courier services from USPS, DHL, UPS, etc.
4. Integration for tracking [Our Score: 3 out of 5]
The reviews of Shippo suggest that it allows you to integrate orders and tracking information in a single dashboard. This includes your orders from various marketplaces as well as your e-commerce platform.
Cons:
1. Fewer Commercial Courier partners [Our Score: 2 out of 5]
Although Shippo has integrations with major courier companies like DHL and FedEx, it lacks commercial courier partners that specialize in services that are essential to enhancing customer experience.
2. Falsely advertised carrier rates [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
Shippo can sometimes display misleading rates or discounts on its website. We found this Shippo review which suggests that the sales team of Shippo promised discounted delivery rates, but the rates were normalized after some time.
2.2) Management for Reverse Logistics
Returns are an integral part of the customer experience on any online platform. Therefore, Reverse logistics and shipping have to be as hassle-free as possible as e-commerce companies lose money on every returned order.
Pros:
1. Automated Return Label printing [Our Score: 3.5 out of 5]
Shippo automatically generates return labels and sends them out to courier partners for hassle-free returns.
2. Pay-when-used return labels [ Our Score: 4.5 out of 5]
Shippo reviews suggest that the API charges you for the return label only after the label has been scanned and the return has been processed.
Cons:
1. No international return labels [ Our Score: 1 out of 5]
Reviews of Shippo indicate that the API allows you to handle international shipments conveniently, but has no international return label system. We found this review that highlights the issue, especially if you have a global reach.
2.3) Handling Delivery Exceptions
With the internet giving us a global reach, most e-commerce companies tend to ship customers far and wide, leading to unpredictable delivery exceptions like Shipping delays, failed deliveries, etc.
Pros:
1. Address Validation [Our Score: 3.5 out of 5]
To avoid failed deliveries, Shippo verifies and validates the address before physically shipping out the product. This reduces the number of failed deliveries due to incorrect addresses.
2. CSV upload [Our Score: 3 out of 5]
To improve your order processing speed, Shippo can upload all the details required to print a shipping label from an existing order file to avoid manual entry errors.
Cons:
1. No clear return address [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
Many of the Shippo reviews suggest that Shippo does not allow the companies to put in a specific return address for the RTO (return-to-origin) and return orders, which leads to a frequent loss in the rejected shipment.
2. Buggy auto-filling feature [Our Score: 2 out of 5]
The auto feature of Shippo adds the most relevant address rather than the nearest correct address with its auto-filling feature. This can lead to shipments being couriered to the wrong addresses and loss of shipments.
3. No live customer support for stuck shipments [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
We found multiple reviews of Shippo where the customer claimed that Shippo does not have a live support system to assist with delayed or stuck shipments. This can ruin the experience for the companies as well as the end customers.
4. No automated Shipping Delay Management [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
Shippo does not provide any Shipping Delay Management services or automatic tracking services. Their clients have to manually notify the customers and the courier companies that their shipments are missing.
2.4) Software:
When using Order Management software, the usability and the features of the software have to be taken into consideration. These factors can contribute significantly to improving the efficiency of your fulfillment process.
Pros:
1. Multiple users for one account [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Shippo allows multiple users on a single account as they do not charge a monthly fee. This allows for better team collaboration and easier handling of the fulfillment process.
2. Analytical dashboard for your shipping operations [Our Score: 3.5 out of 5]
Reviews of Shippo say that the software provides a monthly overview of shipping operations. This can be useful to analyze the costs of your fulfillment and logistic operations and optimize your workflow to maximize efficiency for the future.
Cons:
1. No IoS app [Our Score: 2 out of 5]
Shippo has no mobile application making it difficult to keep a track of your orders on the move. They provide a web-based dashboard that can be accessed via a mobile browser, but the user interface for the dashboard is not mobile-friendly.
2. Unclear billing cycle [Our Score: 2 out of 5]
Shippo does not charge a monthly fee but charges you per label to optimize costs. But, the billing cycle seems too unclear and can throw a wrench in your financial plans if the bills are due at an inconvenient time.
2.5) API
API is a crucial aspect of the fulfillment services that you choose. The reliability of the API can affect a lot of important sections of your business, and the integration of the API can allow you to accelerate the order fulfillment process to enhance the customer experience on your site.
Pros:
1. Strong reliable API [Our Score: 4.5 out of 5]
Shippo reviews suggest that most of its customers like the reliability of the API. Shippo guarantees a 99.99% uptime in the SLA.
2. Easier integration and onboarding with various marketplaces [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Reviews of Shippo suggest that most of the customers value the API’s integration to manage orders from marketplaces like Shopify, eBay, and Etsy.
3. No monthly fee / Pay per label pricing model [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Shippo has a pay-per-use label billing model which unburdens the businesses from the motley fee payment and allows them to pay for services as and when they use them.
Cons:
1. Single payment method/option [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
Shippo allows you to save only one credit card/ payment method to pay for your dues to the app. If you want to change the payment option, you have to go to the settings and set a different payment method from there. This can lead to inconvenience, especially when they have a weekly billing cycle.
2. Complex API integration [Our Score: 2 out of 5]
Most of the Shippo reviews suggest that you will need to be technologically sound to integrate the Shippo API into your systems. Customers suggest that API can be complex and you may have to dedicate resources towards integration from your end. We found this review that highlights the issue well.
2.6) Shipping Label Generation
Formulating and printing the shipping labels can be a labor-intensive process. Many software in the market offer to automate the process and the features like batch printing and carrier and marketplace integration can optimize your fulfillment process significantly.
Pros:
1. Automated Label printing [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Shippo provides automated Label printing services for all your orders including the orders received from marketplace platforms like Shopify, eBay, and Etsy.
2. Pay-per-label model [Our Score: 4.5 out of 5]
Shippo used a pay-per-label billing model and does not charge a monthly fee. This allows businesses to use the services without having to bear the burden of monthly charges.
Cons:
1. No prompt refunds for denied/unused labels [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
As Shippo uses a pay-per-label billing model, they provide credit refunds for unused, incorrect, and denied labels. But reviews of Shippo suggest that you have to constantly follow up with Shippo customer support to get these refunds.
2. Cannot change/correct details on a label [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
Reviews of Shippo from customers suggest when creating labels with Shippo, you cannot change the details on the label once they have been entered. You will have to print a new label to correct the mistakes made on the previous ones.
2.7) Integration with Marketplaces
Shippo is an excellent option for individual merchants and e-commerce companies that use marketplaces to sell their products. Their API provides integration with several marketplaces for Shipping Label Generation and shipping to automate the process for you.
Pros:
1. Integration with popular marketplaces [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Reviews of Shippo show that most of the customers appreciate the integration with popular marketplaces like Shopify, eBay, and Etsy. Shippo provides automated shipping label printing and scheduled deliveries for the orders received from these platforms.
2. Data Import [Our Score: 3.5 out of 5]
Shippo can import order data from marketplaces and assist in the automatic label generation process.
3. Shipping Tools [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Shippo provides tools that automate and streamline the shipping workflow to optimize your shipping operations for maximum efficiency.
Cons:
1. No Order Integration [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
Shippo reviews suggest that you cannot club multiple orders together even though they are going to the same delivery address. We found multiple reviews that suggest that customers did not like this feature of the Shippo API.
2. Complex multiple account management [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
In the case of multiple accounts on the same marketplace, Shippo does not treat those separate stores as independent entities. This can lead to issues, especially if you change the login credentials for one store.
3. Order tracking bugs on Shopify [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
We found reviews of Shippo where the API was not passing the tracking ids for the placed orders on to the customer. These caused delays and hampered customer experience as they were not able to track their order.
2.8 Delivery Experience for the Customers
Customer experience plays a crucial role in the success of any e-commerce platform. Many companies use services from software like Shippo and ClickPost to provide a seamless shipping experience to their customers.
Pros:
1. Provides special delivery services [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Shippo provides various special delivery services through its courier partners like Next-day Delivery, Regional and International Shipping so that you can ship and expedite the delivery process for your customers.
2. Partnerships with Special Tracking Services [Our Score: 4 out of 5]
Shippo provides integration with special delivery tracking APIs as well as the courier partner tracking APIs so that your customers can receive live updates.
Cons:
1. Branded Tracking Page [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
The branded tracking page provided by Shippo is very weak, and the UI is very bland. The branded tracking page also has no cross-selling abilities.
2. Notifications to Customers [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
Shippo notifies the customer about their order being shipped, only via email. There are softwares in the market like ClickPost which provide continuous live tracking of the order and notify the customers via email, SMS, and WhatsApp.
3. No Delivery Date Prediction [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
The Shippo API does not provide a delivery date prediction for the orders. This can result in a loss of sales the customers cannot know the delivery date and e-commerce companies are unable to commit to a timeline for the delivery.
4. No Shipping Delay Management [Our Score: 1 out of 5]
We found multiple reviews of Shippo where the customers complained that their shipments were stuck for days, and the Shippo team did not provide any support whatsoever. In this review, the customer specifically had to employ someone to deal with angry customers.
3) Conclusion
Shippo is one of the leading shipping management software and the above analysis clearly shows why. Shippo provides integration with all the widely known courier carries along with direct integration to your online stores on various e-commerce marketplaces.
The software lacks key features when it comes to customer service and experience on the customer and client end. Shippo does not provide any Shipping delay management and Delivery Date prediction. Besides this, Shippo does not have a strong branded tracking page that can enable cross-selling abilities which will allow you to scale. The software also notifies the customers about the shipment only through e-mail and does not provide live tracking updates like most of its counterparts.
Therefore, the software is an ideal fit for small e-commerce companies and individual merchants that are looking to automate their label printing and shipping process. We found multiple reviews of Shippo that state that the software does not offer prompt responsive support, which can be critical while handling shipping exceptions.
While the API for the software is reliable, some bugs and glitches can hinder your operations. The Pay-per-use billing model without the monthly fees is a convenient feature for small-scale operations, but multiple Shippo reviews suggest that Shippo may not be feasible as you scale your operations.
4) Final Scores
Shippo scored about 3.5 out of 5 as it provides reliable shipping label printing and shipping automation services at affordable prices. But, features are missing from API that some companies may consider crucial while scaling. Therefore, it is necessary that you look for Shippo alternatives that are a better fit for your needs. We have listed the top 5 Shippo alternatives for you below:
1. ClickPost is logistics management software that allows you to streamline your fulfillment operations and enhance your customer experience. The software is known for its prompt notifications to customers and real-time tracking updates of your order. Besides enhancing the customer experience on your platform, ClickPost also provides services like Shipping Delay Management, API integration, NDR, and Returns management along with the best-in-class carrier selection algorithm.
Overall Score: 4.5 out of 5
2. Narvar is a software that focuses on building a loyal customer base by focusing on the post-purchase experience. The software allows you to track forward and reverse shipments and inspires repeat customers by providing a seamless post-purchase experience. However, the onboarding process of the API and the UI of the software is complex and may involve a learning curve to use it effectively.
Overall Score: 4 out of 5
3. Shipstation is an e-commerce shipping management platform that allows companies to directly import orders from various marketplaces and handle their fulfillment process. ShipStation integrates with popular marketplaces like Shopify, WooCommerce, and others to streamline your shipping process and manage orders and shipping with multiple carriers through a single platform. But, the software lacks customer support, and reviews suggest that the costs can add up quickly depending on the volume you handle.
Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5
4. Stamps.com is an internet-based company that provides integration with multiple carriers along with the US Postal Service. The unique feature of Stamps is that it provides absolute transparency while shipping with the US Postal service so that you can avoid any hidden costs along with discounts on postal charges. But, the software does not provide any tracking or shipping management services.
Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5
5. Aftership is an order tracking and delivery management platform that provides branded tracking pages for forward and return orders. With an android and IoS app that allows you to track your orders on the move, the platform provides customers with regular tracking updates through a branded tracking page and provides an analytics dashboard to enhance consumer experience and optimize carrier performance.
Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5
5) FAQs about Shippo Reviews
5.1) What is Shippo?
Shippo is a shipping management platform that integrates your shipping operations with widely known carriers at discounted rates. The software provides delivery management and automated shipping label printing services on a pay-per-use billing model so that you can save up on monthly costs.
5.2) Does Shippo have a free version?
Yes, Shippo does have a free plan that does not charge any monthly fee for using its services. It however charges you 5 cents per label. This fee can be avoided if you choose Shippo’s default carriers. It also provides a 30-day free trial for its professional subscription.
5.3) Can I ship multiple orders with Shippo?
No, Shippo does not allow you to integrate multiple orders. In order to send multiple packages in a single shipment, you will have to create a label for one of the items and mark the dimensions and weight for both items. But, this does not allow you to create a comprehensive shipping manifest and is just a workaround.
5.4) Does Shippo provide pickup services?
No, Shippo does not provide pick-up services for all its orders. However, if you choose to fulfill your orders with partners like DHL express and USPS, they offer to pick up services under their service umbrella.