“We wanted to create a product that was extremely easy for users to sign up and start shipping immediately.” — SmartShyp co-founder Tyler Babb.
Online shopping is a rush.
Yes, I’ve spent many nights browsing the web, searching for random and cool items that satisfy my desire to splurge. I can hop on Amazon and find a pizza pillow, buy it, and have it on my front steps in two days — for those of you wondering, that’s a pillow that looks like a whole pizza, not a pillow made of actual pizza. If I’m not feeling pizza pillows, why not jump on Ebay and start browsing for virtual reality headsets? Or maybe head on over to Etsy and treat myself to a few shiny bracelets? The options are endless and the beauty of online shopping is drawn from its simplicity — click, buy, receive, all from the comfort of my own home.
Forgotten in the shuffle of this simple transaction is what goes into it. Namely, the shipping process. For me, it’s easy — I buy something and it shows up at my door. For small businesses and merchants, however, shipping is not as easy.
Tyler Babb once started an outdoor gear company alongside two friends, where he was charged with a great many tasks that come with being a small business owner. One of those tasks involved figuring out the shipping process and let’s just say things did not go according to plan.
“I was in charge of operations and shipping was a nightmare, it was expensive and a total disaster,” said Babb. “It was hard to find a solution that helped automate and streamline the process. Over the course of a year, my brain started getting into that problem and eventually I founded SmartShyp.”
We hear those two words — automate and streamline — a lot regarding tech companies, but it’s impossible to describe SmartShyp without bringing them up. In April 2016, Babb and his co-founder Chris Wright released a platform that they believe simplifies, automates, and streamlines the shipping process for small business owners. In the world of online shopping, this is no small feat.
“Traditionally as a business, you have to go and negotiate contracts and rates with the carriers,” said Babb. “It can take upwards of 4–5 weeks sometimes to get a rate and contract signed with UPS, FedEx, USPS. If we can eliminate that process, where a company can sign up on our website in a matter of 60 seconds and create a label, that’s a huge pain point we are solving.”
Through its simple user interface, SmartShyp attacks a variety of pain points that come hand-in-hand with online shipping — discounted shipping rates, simplified label printing, order processing, basically managing every tiny shipping detail so the small business owner doesn’t have to. Rather than going through the weeks-long process of negotiating and signing a shipping contract, SmartShyp users can begin shipping in minutes.
“Just for signing up for our service, we’re getting you a discounted shipping rate — using some of our accounts — that a typical small business owner wouldn’t have access to because their volume is too low,” said Babb.
SmartShyp offers automatic integrations with a variety of websites — Amazon, Ebay, Shopify, Jane.com, and many more. In fact, the partnership with Jane.com has not only resulted in platform integration but also funding — Jane.com recently finalized an investment in SmartShyp, a needed boost as they work towards their goals of finalizing more partnerships and focusing marketing efforts on small businesses that handle their e-commerce shipping internally.
“We wanted to create a product that was extremely easy for users to sign up and start shipping immediately,” said Babb.
