
Skip the Post Office, Use Shyp - jstreebin
http://blog.geteasypost.com/post/52239161920/skip-the-post-office-use-shyp
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rgbrenner
"Currently, for a consumer or small business to send packages the following
needs to happen: buy packing materials, pack the order, drive to shipping
carrier, wait in line, and pay."

Not really. You do need packing materials.. but Endicia, Stamps.com, and even
the USPS website will let you print postage. And you can request a free pickup
through the usps website.

That's your real competition...

~~~
kevingibbon
Co-founder of Shyp here.

Absolutely! However USPS only does pickups from 10-2 M-S. You need to be there
or leave the package outside.

We will be soon adding support for UPS, Fedex, Ontrac and a bunch of other
regional shipping company. Ship through Shyp and we handle everything.

~~~
rgbrenner
Maybe in SF.. I'm in Denver, and I've had USPS pickups as late as 6:30pm.
Downside was always you couldn't be completely sure at what time they would
show up.

I've also heard some UPS Stores will pickup, package, and ship packages for
you.. but it's up to the store (they're independently owned).. don't know how
widespread that is.

I really don't have anything else to add... It's an interesting idea.. How
compelling it is depends on the price I would think.

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cddotdotslash
The recent surge in physical shipping startups is interesting, but concerning
as well. How can these new companies with limited funds afford to be sending
drivers around to pickup packages and visit various locations? I think
yesterday there was a company that would come pickup your mail from your
mailbox. How is that possibly sustainable? And how can it scale to anywhere
beyond maybe San Francisco? It just seems like a very lofty goal.

~~~
kevingibbon
By being profitable on every transaction from day 1. I can't speak to other
shipping startups but we make good margins after paying our delivery drivers.

If this works in SF it will most likely work in other major cities. Shipping
stuff sucks everywhere.

~~~
calbear81
Are you seeing more traction with in city deliver (so basically courier on
demand for individuals) vs. people who want to eliminate the hassle of
shipping out of the city?

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kevingibbon
It's been 90/10 shipping out of city.

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hayksaakian
What's with all the snail mail startups / projects in the last few days?

Did USPS open up some regulation or something, what's going on?

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ChrisNorstrom
The rise of Fab.com thefancy.com and the other design websites that sell
physical products that the owners ship have motivated startups to make
fulfillment more efficient I think.

Fulfillment is the biggest pain in the ass of a business. You won't understand
until you have to do it yourself. Even 10 packages can take an hour from
beginning to end. So a few startups caught on and the rest were inspired to
offer solutions as well.

I personally can't use Shyp because I have a sweet & easy setup already.

1) I have all my shipping supplies in the basement (boxes stacked to the
ceiling).

2) I pack my orders (from DayOnePP.com) and buy postage using Stamps.com and
print it out on sticky labels using my laser printer.

3) As long as 1 box is Priority Mail the USPS will pick up for free the next
day. She's usually here at 3pm so I know when to be ready.

4) If not, there's always a post office within 5 minutes that has a 24/hour
package drop off container. I just run through that before work and drop off
all the boxes I've got.

It literally cannot get easier. I don't wait in line for anything and still
get the cheapest prices on postage by using the online discounts that
stamps.com(& PayPal Shipping & Pitney Bowes Smart Postage & Endicia offer) .

~~~
hayksaakian
I asked because when I did a lot of shipping I had the same setup that you
just mentioned. I'd just use the paypal hookup to print shipping labels for no
additional cost.

Beyond actually packing and shipping the product I don't see what else there
is left to solve.

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bradfa
I feel that doing an API this way begs for a middle man to make an app that
normal people can actually use to do shipping in their business.

Why, if I want to ship things to people as my business, would I implement some
software myself using this rather than buy an existing offering?

Am I missing something? Shipping and accepting credit cards are completely
different, I know this API concept works for Stripe, but I fail to see how it
works well for shipping.

~~~
a_c_s
Just as with a credit card API, you would integrate the ability to purchase &
print postage within another application.

I work on an internal company application and it would be great if people
could purchase & print postage from within the application.

~~~
jstreebin
Exactly -- the underlying APIs are painful to integrate, just like with
Stripe.

Drop me a line at j at easypost dot com and I'd love to see how we can help

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cdvonstinkpot
Another downside to your app is that it's on the iPhone platform, and I use
Blackberry.

If you had a way for me to use a normal digital camera with my PC it would
help get me on board.

There was some other new service here on HN recently that was called 'Sold'
for selling stuff but it only worked on a certain platform I didn't have a
device for, too- so I guess its not uncommon for startups to exclude whole
market segments by device ownership.

~~~
calbear81
I don't think it's a matter of them choosing to not work with Blackberry
users, it's a matter of trade offs between time and resources. As a startup,
you may only have time to build one great app for one platform and iOS was the
chosen one.

To come to that decision, it was probably a factor of what you know and also
some insight into the customer base. For example, maybe iOS users tend to be
more likely to pay a premium for convenience or that in San Francisco, iOS
penetration is higher than Android, etc etc.

If the product picks up traction, I will bet that their next move is to port
to Android, then web, then maybe ... maybe windows phone and blackberry.

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askedrelic
I'm still waiting on my invite. I saw some ads on FB advertising it and
decided to try, but have been waiting since. I hate the Post Office and would
love to this us.

~~~
iamjoshuascott
Glad to hear! Right now we're slowly taking on beta users, but we'll be
ramping up significantly over the next while. Looking forward to having you on
board and getting your feedback!

~~~
joe_schmo
This is an awesome idea. There is room for other shipping companies for sure.
I hate using ups, always late over priced. Bring on A new company and lool
forward to trying it out!

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groby_b
Question: How are you going to protect my shipments from being damaged if
they're not packaged? Or do you package on my site?

~~~
kevingibbon
We have custom bags that have heavy padding on the inside. We have designed
them to transport fragile items. If multiple items are going in the same
package, we bubble wrap each individually on site.

We take these bags with contents to our warehouse where we professional
package all items for transport.

~~~
epa
And if it is damaged on arrival, who is liable, you or the shipping company.
Who do i have to deal with to get paid for my broken item?

~~~
kevingibbon
We inspect every item at our warehouse. If it was damaged during transport to
us, we cover 100%. If it is damaged from us to the destination, it will be up
to the shipping company. We offer insurance through USPS.

We are looking to cover round trip but still seeing if that is economical for
us.

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nolite
the spelling of this name bothers me..

