ShipStation

Commentaires: ShipStation has been crucial to our workflow and we'd have wasted hours a week if we were still having to manually enter data. The staff at ShipStation is helpful when you need them but they COULD do a better job implementing features that customers request.

Avantages: We like that you can use ShipStation to import and update orders on your shopping cart software with very little effort.

Inconvénients: The cost may be prohibitive for users only using minimal feature set, but still a good value compared to manually hand-jamming data.

Commentaires: I moved from Stamps.com and cut my shipping and customer service time by 80%. I adopted this software at ~15 packages per day because it was more expensive than Stamps.com. Bad move!!! Pay extra for ShipStation from the start.

Avantages: I've used ShipStation, ShippingEasy, ShipWorks, Stamps.com, Ordoro, and SolidCommerce with a few clients. My two favorite are ShipStation and ShippingEasy. They both have different strengths - sweat the small stuff because it really makes a difference if you're shipping 200+ packages a day. It's worth using two or more systems and then picking the best. The time spent is worth the effort. I use ShipStation for managing the shipping and customer service from my website, Amazon, Walmart, Jet, Ebay, and Etsy. The application is rock solid. Creating manual orders is simple, as is importing orders and combining shipments. I like that I can place orders on hold and setup future shipments. Other vendors like ShippingEasy cannot do this (yet). We get a fair number or orders that have a bad address and we're able to put orders on hold until we hear back from the customer. This shipping rules and kitting options are fairly robust. It is easy to identify return customers (this is something not done well by other platforms). The UI is very buttoned-up. ShipStation also has a superior "Search Customers" function that will search on 3 and 4 part names, city, state... Some of the other vendors fail here. Having good search reduces customer service time.

Inconvénients: There are some things that ShippingEasy does better - e.g. they're a single page application and that means that the interface is super fast. ShipStation is slower as you mover around in the interface. I wish that ShipStation could manage my inventory across marketplaces and I'm in love with how some of the other vendors solicit reviews using marketing/email automation. I hope someday that vendors like ShipStation will also connect to Auth.net or Stripe.com so that we can Auth and Settle New Manual Orders. It takes a bit longer to learn ShipStation but if you're running a larger/complicated business you'll come to appreciate the power that comes with the complexity.

Avantages: • I was assigned a specific person as my customer service representative, and when I called with an issue, one of the customer rep picked up the phone and answered my question on the spot; meaning, I didn't have to dial a ton of menu options or wait on hold at all to speak with a person. She is also very responsive to emails. We tend to look at websites and applications as faceless businesses, but with ShipStation I know there is someone on the other end that cares about my experience. • Integrates seamlessly with Squarespace Commerce account • Automatically marks order fulfilled when a shipping label is printed • Connects to printer easier than Stamps.com

Inconvénients: • Have to load balances instead of paying for what you use as you go. I encountered this with Stamps.com as well, but it is annoying because I have to make cash flow considerations when all I need is a few extra dollars to print a label. • Cannot edit manual orders, need to delete and re-create an order if changing quantity or amount of a product. • I "chose" ShipStation because it was the only shipping option that would integrate with Squarespace. Most of my issues were encountered while trying to transition from Stamps.com to become familiar with the new platform. Though very similar, ShipStation INITIALLY felt like a clunkier, gaudier version of the same thing. Thankfully, they've recently made some positive design changes. However, there are still some quirky user interface aspects, including:
— animated "help/info" bubbles (which I just figured out how to hide).
— In Stamps.com, I was able to see if my thermal printer was connected (or visible to the website) before clicking "print" — which, when I click, charges the postage to my account regardless if the label actually printed. In ShipStation, I have to click "print" without knowing if the website is able to send the job to the printer. This has resulted in additional postage billed to my account because I clicked "print." I then have to wait for that amount to be refunded in my account. Though I should add, I rarely have printer connection issues with ShipStation, whereas it used to be the bane of my Stamps.com experience.
— Stamps.com also made it easy to see all the USPS shipping options and rates at a glance, while viewing an order. In ShipStation, I either have to select a service, then an option from within that service or open up a separate rate calculator. This makes it harder to find the lowest shipping fee/service or fastest method for its value when modifying individual orders.

Commentaires: I was impressed with options you have in this software to speed up shipping proces.
I sell in multiple platforms ( eBay, amazon, and my own ecommerce store) and ship station import all orders into one place. No more login into each of them and ship from there
I also ship with multiple carriers ( USPS and FedEx) and there is where ship station is handy
I am using stamps.com for 5+ years and I ma very happy with it but stamps will not work with FedEx so I had to sort out orders by shipping method and ship USPS packages using stamps.com and than log into FedEx to ship remaining orders from there. FedEx software it terrible ( on line fedex.com and their shop software ) that it actually increase my shipping time that I was considering to drop FedEx shipping method from all stores. Ship Station make shipping much easier if you use multiple carriers and this is why I use it

Avantages: 1) Import orders from multiple ecommerce platform
2) One software for multiple shipping carriers and method
3) Great email notification for clients, multiple options of emails and multiple templets
4)inventory tracking
many other good futures

Inconvénients: 1) Depend on package you have with ship station support can take long time to answer your question. No phone support for any users and only email support for lowest package. This is not acceptable. When I need to ship and I have issue I need to call somebody and fix problem ASAP. If you send email you can wait who know how long to resolve issue. Live chat is available only for selected ship station clients ( base on how much you are paying = selected package of ship station) and it may take very long time to actually chat with somebody ( we are talking hours in some cases before you are at top of chat queue )
2) you have to press button to read package weight if you have scale attached. This is very annoying if you ever used software with automatic scale. You place package on scale and software already know what you shipping. ( or alarm you when scale is 0 = nothing on scale ). I had packages returned because I did not press "read" scale button and package was over weight compared to postage purchased. Same goes the other way. You pay more for postage if your package is less than what you estimate in your ecommerce platform.
3) FedEx international shipping has big problem. Ship station does not print commercial invoice for international packages. You technically can print label but than you have to go to FedEx and fill out commercial invoice form. I do not understand why it can not be printed at the same time with label. All info is already available ( item, price etc) on ship station after importing order. Ship Station print all required paper work for USPS international packages
4) address verification is not strong future on a software . I am comparing it to a stamps.com again. If client place wrong address on a form ship station will tell you that address is not valid but will not tell you what is wrong and will not suggest correction. Stamps.com will suggest correct zip code , street name , apartment number if it is missing etc. Ship station will only tell you " invalid apartment number" or "apartment not found"
5) international imported addresses create issue sometimes if client used other than English address form. German , Japanese, Spanish language use soft punctuations and different letters like ~ or ę ó ś ć and many similar. Ship station when import such address create strange characters replacing original with something like @##@$%% and if you print it I can guaranty package will not be delivered to a clients since local post office will not recognize street name or town.
6) some countries are not recognized by ship station as international address. Republic of Ireland is not recognized. If client place that name on order form Ship station assign USA address to it. Since this is official name if country my client always put it than way and not Ireland in Country section. They would have to put Ireland instead ( Ireland in country field create correct international destination) Same goes to United Kingdom but England will be correct ( it may be few others - just do not remember )

Commentaires: Shipstation tracks packages, manages inventory, labels, and shipping. integrates easily with many different platforms (eBay, Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, ETC.) Ship station can also automate most client communications including eBay feedback, email marketing, messages, and much more. It's like having a custom built CRM that was specifically design for ecommerce / marketplace sellers. It's not something you HAVE to have; almost everything it does can be done manually. Trust me when I say that once you do use it,- you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

Avantages: - Customer service is awesome (live chat, phone, email, etc) You're also assigned your own dedicated representative that learns your business model & account. Helpful since they will learn your account over time with you.
- It's inexpensive compared to similar software.
- This a pro AND a con (see below) but you also get a free stamps.com account with Shipstation. In reality its stamps.com that handles your USPS labels (that includes billing for shipping).
- The software just works. It does it's job and it does it extremely well.

Inconvénients: - Don't get why PayPal isn't offered as payment source to ship labels / pay monthly fees. (I ended up just getting paypal business debit card)
- Wish they revamped the pricing structure. If your selling 500-600 avg. each month. Your being charged the same each month for someone that sells 1400-1500 products. Seems to me a pricing structure: 100 / 250 / 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 5000 would make more sense and entice more lower volume sellers to use it.
- SS & stamps.com - The only problems I have had were due to stamps.com and not Ship station. When this happens, you have to reach out to stamps.com for support which can be like pulling teeth. This means your sometimes having to call/email 2 different companies if your having problems with something.
- No offline/desktop version of the software.