Show HN: Built a 'Kayak for courier services' | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Built a 'Kayak for courier services'

goshippo.com

95 pointslaurabw111 comments

Looks interesting. We are dealing with finding better shipping prices for international shipments on shirts and what we have found is that distributors that ship really high volume are able to negotiate better rates. Does Shippo have the ability to take advantage of the scale as the site increases in shipments? How do you differ from EasyPost?

Hi frankdenbow, it's great to hear from you. My favourite point of differentiation between us and all existing shipping startups is that we're building a database that aims at integrating all existing courier service not only the 4 big ones (FedEx, UPS, TNT, DHL). The main thought behind our concept is that the small local courier services mostly offer much more competitive prices than the big 4 ones. However, they are difficult to find and compare and most people don't bother searching. At the same time we're negotiating with our courier services to get discounts because of economics of scale. Right now, our discounts are not very high yet. But as traffic increases we'll be able to go back to the courier services and negotiate better rates. That's the goal!

Don't understand your negotiated prices apply to my shipments? I noticed that user is requested to create account at respective carrier. Could not use it since the server ajax is not responding. PS - Request URL:https://goshippo.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?from-dd=Orange%... Request Method:GET Status Code:500 Internal Server Error

I'm sincerely sorry about the server problems. We received an overwhelming response from the HN community today (thanks!) and the server became quite slow because of that. We didn't expect that and were unprepared with our MVP. Yes, depending on the courier service we're sometimes able to pass on our discounts.

the problem is you need to link local couriers and aggregate shipments at hubs nearby each one to make international shipments reasonable for small volume. there are a couple of companies trying to do this and provide one outward facing shipping brand, but navigating political environments, building the tech to tie it together and getting to volume levels that make this all possible is tough.

Hi dsugarman, in the long term we want to be able to connect the local courier service seamlessly the way you described it. This would offer really competitive prices but as you mentioned it is a quite difficult task. That's why we've been focussing on local courier services first that deliver cross border. I'm talking about services such as DPD or GLS in Europe.

The results are wildly inaccurate due to the omission of online rates for USPS. If you have a paypal account you can buy and print shipping labels at home and save $1-5 on every package you send. It makes USPS the cheapest shipping option for nearly everything including international shipping.

Also, FedEx and UPS charge an extra $3 or so when delivering to a residential address. So the low prices shown on your site don't reflect real world usage.

Hi ChrisNorstrom, I appreciate your concern and thanks for the feedback. We've integrated the official APIs of FedEx, UPS and USPS and are optimising the results every day. I will look into the points you mentioned and check if they are not reflected by the APIs already. We are aware of the residential vs commercial address difference and as of tomorrow we'll have the differentiation live.

Thanks, I love the site btw. I was just in a rush to type it out and head to work.

USPS has discounted online rates that apply to everyone using Stamps.com, Paypal, Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, Endicia, Pitney Bowes, and any other postage printing service.

Thanks a lot for letting us know! :)

I'm launching a marketplace within a month or so for custom machining and fabrication. Vendors want instantaneous quotes and labels. I'll probably be integrating with EasyPost to start. Here are some thoughts:

I need an API so a vendor can print labels from my site. I want one-click shipping so that they get 1) a label 2) billed 3) pickup. Speed is important to my vendors. Most of them bill hourly and think of their time that way so anything that reduces time per job is a big deal.

My flow looks like:

Customer enters specs and shipping info for a price quote -> Vendor responds with a quote including shipping

If all goes well, I'll also do instantaneous pricing for certain machining processes. Unless I missed something in the docs, EasyPost apparently does not do quotes based solely on zip/dimensions/weight and I never got a response from support when I asked. For me, this means that to get a shipping quote, customers also need to enter at least an "address_line1". There may be a business/technical reason for this, but I'm worried that having to enter that additional piece of personally-identifying info on my site will be a dealbreaker for first-time customers while I'm starting up.

For my use case, I'd like to see Stripe Connect functionality for shipping: vendors sign up for shipping through OAuth and then I interact with the shipping service on behalf of each vendor. On EasyPost, it appears that a UPS/Fedex/USPS/whatever account is tied to the EasyPost account. It was suggested that I bill vendors for shipping and go through my own carrier accounts, but this seems messy.

If you could address some concerns for marketplaces in the future, I'd be pretty happy.

Hi tbran, thanks for leaving a comment. Here's my take on your concerns: Easypost is a really great service. They were in YC and I think they are a great choice for the flow you mentioned. We're quite different from them (while we're still addressing the same problem).

The address_line 1 is not necessary to get an accurate quote. However, it is necessary to generate a label that you'll need for sending the package. You'll have to be careful to enter the correct address. FedEx charges extra afterwards for address corrections. Our goal was to build an API that allows you to get accurate quotes without having to enter a lot of data. However for the final label purchase the exact address will be necessary.

UPS/FedEx etc. don't allow you to pass on your account to people that are not directly connected with your business. I assume that is what you meant by "messy." If you still want to do that stripe connect is certainly a good choice. This is exactly what we're working on - to get contracts with courier services to eliminate this problem.

About the flow that we had envisioned for our service: customers choose the product they want to buy -> tell us in which country they live -> we show them all available courier services -> they chose the servicelevel that suits their needs best (fastest, cheapest, whatever) -> check out -> the label is directly sent to the vendor -> vendor sticks it on the package -> brings it to the post office/gets pickup (vendor can specify if only pickups are allowed & which day is best for pick up) -> done (all through API)

Just email me at laura(at)goshippo.com if you have any more questions. Happy to help out.

Regarding the "messy account passing", I'd just like to be able to interact with a vendor's own UPS account with minimal setup from my vendor. Thanks for the info! It clears some things up.

I don't know a service that offers multiple courier services and allows multiple accounts... If you want you can integrate the API of one courier service, such as UPS, and offer access with multiple accounts. Or you can use Easypost and have access to multiple courier services with one single account. I'm sorry that I couldn't be more helpful. Good luck!

When scanning the HN titles, I first thought you built a physical kayak that will be used by kayak-couriers (as in bike-couriers).

Hahaha this is my favourite comment... Unfortunately our skills don't extend to that level

ha ha ha, I totally thought the same thing. I was excited to see what city would benefit from from a kayak delivery service. I assumed venice :-)

I was under the impression (hearsay) that the Big Two carriers at least (FedEx, UPS) do not appreciate having their prices directly compared and contrasted.

Is offering this service only for international shipments a way to get around that?

Hey adyus, valid question. FedEx and UPS have similar points in their T&Cs that talk about comparison. Feel free to get in touch personally to talk about possible solutions!

Do you guys have contracts with the carriers to have access to their API?

Yep. Ping me if you need more information about the contracts.

Cool idea but I couldn't get it to work.

It kept throwing errors saying that I needed to pick a valid zip code or city from the dropdown (despite having done so). I had 45247 and Tokyo Japan as my two selections. It also said "This field is required" with a bubble that pointed off screen with no way to scroll over to whatever the field was.

Using an iPhone 5, ios 7.

Trying to use Tokyo might be your problem. There is a notice posted at the top of the page saying "Supporting Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States to date" so it looks like your selection shouldn't work.

Hey 67726e, you're right. We're currently showing the best rates for these countries, meaning that we have more than one courier provider for them in our database to allow comparison. All the other countries should work nevertheless simply without "good" (cheap) rates. So it's our bad, apologies!

Arrrghh, that sucks. Which city is 45247? Could you select one?

After entering a valid zip (92128), I had to click the box again to get a listing of valid entries for the zip and select the first one (which had zip/city/state) before it would continue.

The UI should probably auto-select the first one (best match) if user enters the full zip.

I was able to continue and I liked the idea/implementation overall. Nice :)

Hi piptastic, thanks for the feedback. It's on our to do list now! Sorry about the MVP... :)

Wonderful! I don't ship internationally very often, but I've wanted something like this every time.

I tried sorting my search results using the buttons on the upper right, but none of them worked. I suggest also making the column labels work for toggle sorting.

The option to include a screenshot with feedback is a great idea.

Thanks for the great feedback and the compliment! You're right, the sorting feature is still not functioning well. It's on the to do list (the to dos are pilling up with all the great feedback we're getting here:)). Thanks for letting me know!

Brilliant! Suggestions: 1. Can you enable keyboard navigation for the dropdowns? 2. Currency seems to default to my language setting, not to my location. Can this be configurable? Bugs: 1. Sorting doesn't seem to work. 2. Your blog seems to be having performance problems.

Thanks, much appreciated :) Keyboard navigation should work already. Which browser are you using? About the bug: thanks, will fix it now!

Keyboard navigation: I'm running Firefox on Linux. Tabbing between fields works, up/down arrow to select from dropdown doesn't work at the moment.

Thumbs up for letting me know. Sorry that it doesn't work, we're on it!

Same for me FF25 on WinXP.

Did a trial entry for the UK between cities and found that UPS was cheapest, if I book it I'll try and do so through the site.

What is the timeline for other European countries?

Personally, I am most interested in the Netherlands, since I am building e-commerce sites there. (And to persuade you: .nl might be a small market, in absolute numbers, but percentagewise it tops the European charts in online sales).

Hi Berkes, let's talk about this via email. I'm laura(at)goshippo.com. We'd love to prioritise countries for the HN community and would like to learn more about your shipping needs & preferences!

Worked for me. Love the idea. Although I would not use it myself mainly because I rarely send anything ( just once in last 10 years maybe ). I am not sure if I am a rare case or just common case.

However, turn this into a brokerage for ecommerce shops, ebay sellers, etc... and, $$$

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, this is exactly what we're trying to do. Looking for beta customers at the moment that offer platforms to connect buyers and sellers. For them the price and convenience counts. If anybody here wants to beta test, ping me!

Looks good! My search did timeout with a couple of attempts on "We are searching" (don't know if it's the HN effect). It worked on the third try.

A minor copy change suggestion:

"only pay after you created" -> "only pay after you create"

hahaha, yes that's the HN effect. I didn't expect that that many people would click on it and we're now staring at GA overwhelmed by the response... Can't even work on the bugs now because the server got so slow. Thanks for the suggestion!

PS.: working on label printing at the very moment. Anybody wants to beta test? Ping me

PPS.: If you want to send something and your country is not in our database, please let me know asap and we'll insert the country into our database for you. I saw that somebody tweeted that India would be interesting - we've already negotiated the prices and will have them in the database soon. Email me at laura (at) goshippo.com

An API for developers would be really nice for integrating into personal ecommerce websites. It's a pain dealing with all the couriers individually. Please also consider adding support for Purolator and Canada Post.

Hi jamese, the API will be ready next week! Purolator and Canada Post it is. Can I get back in touch with you when we have them integrated? Also, if you can spare some time I'd really like to learn more about what kind of pain you were experiencing with the courier services so we know what not to do!! My email is laura(at)goshippo.com

You're pretty much describing EasyPost, right? They're a YC company out of the last batch - https://www.easypost.com/

Thank you, thank you! I've been trying to remember their name for weeks. Bookmarked :-)

Like the idea and would love to use your service in the future. Don't worry about the server problems. You are in Beta, so that's okay.

Keep up the good work! Hoping you have success!

Hey jsilence, thanks for the great attitude. Which country are you based in? Is it already in our database? Let me know when you use it and I'll get you a test account :)

Most of your sitemap links go back to homepage (Investors for eg): https://goshippo.com/sitemap/

You're right. It's still a MVP with. Sorry about that!

I get a 503 -- thanks HN! ;) -- but a completely empty page. Consider configuring your server so that a minimum output is sent in order not to confuse the average joe later.

Thanks for the suggestion, ozh! I'm sorry about the server problem. I didn't expect such an overwhelming response rate on HN and all we can do now is stare at GA in disbelieve ;)

This site will certainly be useful in the next month when I need to ship a couple of prototypes overseas for testing. Its currently not working for me, but looks like you're being slammed with traffic. I'll bookmark and try again later. Good luck with it!

Awesome, agnuku. Please let me know which country you need as an outbound country and I'll add the country into our database asap in case it's not already in there! And please do send me a msg on laura (at) goshippo.com. I'm happy to give everybody here from HN the service without taking commission.

This is great and looks like it has great potential to expand into added services. Do you plan on having international "less than container" air shipping rates?

Hi mc32, thanks for your positive response. I'm glad you like it. Yes, we have a lot of expansion plans. But step after step ;) We're going into new countries first and working with beta customers to improve our existing product.

Your "This field is required" validation labels obscure the postcode lookup dropdown for me when I submit before inputting any details. Otherwise, very nice!

This is exactly the feedback I was hoping to get. Thanks a lot! I'm on it! I knew I could count on HN. Server is getting super slow though...

"Find and compare shipping rates of more than 100 carriers" but only 11 listed on the "Supported Couriers" page. What am I missing?

Hi kd5bja, valid question. The statement you quoted is our vision for the future. We just launched with our MVP and we're working on the courier side to get as many courier services into our database as possible. At the moment we don't cover all courier services globally. We've got the courier services from Germany, UK, Sweden, Finland and Norway in our database. That's why it's only 11 couriers. I hope for your understanding and I really hope that we can reach our vision soon.

The way your frontpage is built, it looks like a claim of what you currently provide. It's also odd that you show the DHL and TNT logos on the front page but don't actually support them yet.

I like your vision and hope you get there, but misleading potential customers like that doesn't sit well with a lot of people.

I agree with your point and we never had the intention to mislead our customers. I'm sorry if it appeared as if we were trying to mislead them! We just launched and there was no bad intention behind putting the logos up there. I guess we were just a little too rash with that decision. We're currently in talks with both TNT and DHL and will have them in the database within the next two weeks. I'd just like to assure you again that there was no bad intention at all!

Looks very nice, I see there are no Asian courier service provider, hope to see them added soon as I can certainly see real world usage of shippo

Which country are you in? I'm taking suggestions which ones to include next ;) Just finished negotiating with some Indian courier services and will insert them into the database soon! Will then have a look at China next... Please do let me know which countries you want to see next.

Do Shenzhen and Hongkong now, become millionaire next month.

Being an aspiring entrepreneur, I'd love to see Brazil there.

Noted down, dcarmo!

This is great! Useful product and performs well - what's the tech stack? What are you using for addresses/locations?

Hi cpursley, we use Google maps/places API and library. Feel free to ping me if you want to know more details about the tech.

And thank you for the positive feedback! Much appreciated :)

What about server side implementation? I saw that you are using Apache. If you are on Django or Rails you can easily switch to Nginx and gain some benefits.

I have to admit with much shame that it's still PHP based but moving is on the to do list!

You shouldn't feel shame about that, even though it looks like you just used it as an MVP tool.

It keeps getting stuck on loading, but seems a really great idea. Where are you guys based? Would love to talk - @arush

Hey arush, thanks for the positive feedback! I'm sorry about the server problem. We weren't expecting that many clicks when I posted it on HN... ;) We'll be based in SF starting from next week Tuesday. Want to move this conversation to email? I'm laura(at)goshippo.com

I put two US addresses not knowing if it was for international only and it took over 2 min before I close the window.

Hi hoopism, thanks for letting me know. We are also able to show domestic shipments (the rates are not the best). The problem is because our server can't handle the massive traffic from HN. I apologise for the inconvenience, I'm really sorry about the server issues!!

Understandable...

Best of luck and bookmarked for future use. Thanks for reply.

Thanks for understanding :) I'm offering the HN community the service without commission as a thank you for their feedback. Let me know when you want to use it and I'll give you a test account. I'm laura(at)goshippo.com

Switching between imperial and metric system based on IP address would be a nice touch to your international users.

And now it's on my to do list as well. Thanks!

Amazing! We're building a Kayak for Healthcare Services btw. Launching next week :)

Love your product.

Hi mansigandhi, good luck with your launch next week :)

This is relevant to my interests. Where can I learn more?

This is a great idea :) Already sent 3 bugs / UX problems via the UserVoice thing.

Thanks for reporting the bugs and thanks for taking your time to help us out!!! :)

Great work. This is exactly what I've been looking for to sell some of my stuff.

Hey canistr, thanks for the feedback? Where are you based? I'd love to offer everybody here on HN the service without taking commission for a trial period in exchange for occasional feedback. Why don't you message me at laura(at)goshippo.com and we can talk

Could you please tell me what the difference between you and smailex.com?

Hi smailex, sure! We're building a database that will eventually include all international courier services not only the 4 big ones (FedEx, UPS, TNT, DHL). I understand that smailex only integrates FedEx and UPS, right?

Smailex will eventually include all carriers around the globe too.

Pretty good ShipHawk Clone

Hi solscreen, not exactly. ShipHawk is offering the most convenient service to their US customers. Focus is on convenience (they're doing an amazing job at picking up stuff and packing for you), not price sensitivity, transparency or variety. They help you with packaging especially with items that are very difficult to pack (furniture etc). We're a big database for all local and international delivery services (not only the 4 big ones FedEx, UPS, TNT, DHL). We compare and we allow you to buy the shipping labels.

Amazing service. I have been looking for this for a while. Thank you.

Hey caublestone, thanks for the compliment. Which country are you in? Is it in our database already? If not I'll include it for you. Also, I'm really happy to offer everybody from HN the service without taking commission for a test phase in exchange for occasional feedback. Let me know if interested. You can reach me on laura(at)goshippo.com

Hi Laura! I am in the US. I was able to use the service just fine. Thank you.

Matt

It's a 503 error now but would be nice to see Singapore inside!

Hey tengkahwee, thanks for your feedback. We're moving to Asia next. Just promised another commentator to do India first but after that I'll get Singapore into the database. Can I get back to you when we're ready? Would you like to beta test?

This is amazing. I've been wanting this for so long!!!

Hi volandovenge, I just love getting positive feedback! What country are you sending from? If it's not in our database let me know and I'll prioritise it for you. Btw. we're offering test accounts to the HN community as a thank you for the time you took to give me feedback. Test accounts won't take commission for a while. Let me know if you need one. I'm laura(at)goshippo.com

I had to reload the page 8 times for it to actually load.

Hey geekyguy, thanks for clicking on the link and I'll have to apologize about the server problem. I'm really really sorry. I didn't expect the HN community would be that interested about Shippo... The server should normally adjust automatically to the traffic but somehow it's trashed right now. Sorry again for the inconvenience!

Just curious - where have you hosted your service and what mechanism did you use to scale based on traffic?

Hi realcul, we're hosting on AWS with elastic load balancing.

cool but the name have bad connotation. go shit poo ?

funny, I initially read it as gossip-oh, also not exactly positive....

Ok, this is really good to know... Thanks.

Never thought about it like that... We needed a name for the domain and chose this one because I thought we could have a Hippo (the animal) in our logo. I really like how mailchimp uses their logo to make their service a bit cooler. Thanks for mentioning.

Your website is all broken.

I get a "503 Service Unavailable: Back-end server is at capacity" for this:

https://goshippo.com/wp-content/themes/wpbootstrap/images/lo...

I'm sorry, Ye. I really am super sorry about the server problems and I apologise to everybody who can't access the site. We simply did not expect such an overwhelming response from the HN community and we weren't prepared for it. Again, I apologise for the inconvenience and hope for your patience and understanding

Nice attitude.

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