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If you need amazon like shipping, you can do fulfillment by amazon where you pay them to keep your products in their warehouse, and then they ship as directed.

If you need amazon like shipping, you can do fulfillment by amazon where you pay them to keep your products in their warehouse, and then they ship as directed. Obviously competition is good, but I wonder what they offer beyond not being amazon ---- After reading the article, it seems like the main unique offering is that they actually Pack your item, and take them from your home. Seems like the article glosses over this aspect, focusing more on how they compare to amazon or other startups.

tomelders 12y ago
On purely ideological grounds, I'd prefer to use this service (or something similar) just to do my part to stop the impending and unassailable Amazon hegemony.
mpatzer 12y ago
Do you still have to ship the item to Amazon with Fulfillment by Amazon?
- vitamen 12y ago
  Yeah, that's what makes it different from just being a third party merchant on Amazon.
- kevingibbon 12y ago
  No. Our service will pickup from your location at the point you need to ship.
727374 12y ago
Did you read the whole article? The value proposition is more that the company will send a courier to your home and take an unwrapped item to its warehouse to wrap then ship. Fulfillment by amazon requires you to do the wrapping and shipping (to Amazon). With that said, they only charge a $5 fee for this service, which seems unsustainable.
- avalaunch 12y ago
  They also get a discount on shipping which they do not pass on to the consumer. As they scale that difference will become larger and larger. I think that's where they expect to get the bulk of their revenue.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  > With that said, they only charge a $5 fee for this service, which seems unsustainable. Yeah. I don't understand how that even pays the carrier (+fuel). Let alone the packaging and the actual shipping to the end user.
  - avalaunch 12y ago
    They don't just charge 5 dollars. They also charge the cheapest retail shipping rate to the consumer. Meanwhile they pay a bulk discounted rate. They pocket the difference.
    - kevingibbon 12y ago
      yep.
- JoshTriplett 12y ago
  > With that said, they only charge a $5 fee for this service, which seems unsustainable. From the article: > Because it ships so many packages, Gibbon says Shyp gets significant discounts from the major carriers. This makes sense because pooling packages saves their drivers a bunch of trips. “It’s actually a lot cheaper for them to just go here,” Gibbon says. Meanwhile, he says Shyp charges customers the cheapest retail price they would pay to ship an item, which still ends up being more than what the company pays. Shyp keeps the difference. As for paying the couriers: if they can pick up several packages in one trip, that could add up to a decent hourly rate. Large items that result in fewer trips will produce a large shipping cost, out of which Shyp could pay the couriers, while small packages will produce many fees for the couriers.
- kevingibbon 12y ago
kevingibbon 12y ago
The big different is cost. We do not have to store any inventory so we can offer the same service for a much lower price point. Instead of a company shipping all their items to amazon, we will fulfill out of your storage/office/home/coffee shop. Plus you don't have to be as organized to pre-ship all your items to amazon's warehouse. Etsy/eBay/Shopfy sellers love it. btw CEO of Shyp here.
- bosstwizz 12y ago
  How do the economics of dispatching somebody to pick up an item within half an hour work?
  - kevingibbon 12y ago
    its really about demand and pickup density. This is why we will launch in major cities first. We spend less than 1min on average pickup up peoples items. So once we are able to get enough demand within a close proximity everything works out great.
    - michaelt 12y ago
      Interesting. What's the model in terms of vehicle ownership and driver salary? Will you be paying the driver a set rate for a set shift driving a company vehicle, as the likes of UPS do, of will you be paying the drivers per collection with them supplying maintaining and insuring their own vehicle, like Uber and Yodel? At the point you become profitable, how many pickups/packages will each driver do per hour, and how much pay will each driver make per hour/pickup/package? How much of the market do you aspire to cover - will your model extend to most of the country, or just dense urban areas with high levels of demand?
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
- avalaunch 12y ago
  Do you have an api? I can imagine a bunch of ebay tools making good use of it. Also, do you still use EasyPost?
rurounijones 12y ago
> you can do fulfillment by amazon As long as you are willing to risk http://www.fbamastery.com/the-worst-amazon-horror-story-i-have-ever-heard/ http://www.fbamastery.com/the-worst-amazon-horror-story-i-ha...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- meh_master 12y ago
  Wow, reading that kind of pissed me off. Hopefully it gets more attention.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  Seems ripe for some mischief. Order from every seller you can, file fake complaints, let Amazon sort it out. Although it sounded more like he was taken down due to an actual lawsuit, not just a customer complaint.

tomelders 12y ago

On purely ideological grounds, I'd prefer to use this service (or something similar) just to do my part to stop the impending and unassailable Amazon hegemony.

mpatzer 12y ago

Do you still have to ship the item to Amazon with Fulfillment by Amazon?

vitamen 12y ago
Yeah, that's what makes it different from just being a third party merchant on Amazon.
kevingibbon 12y ago
No. Our service will pickup from your location at the point you need to ship.

727374 12y ago

Did you read the whole article? The value proposition is more that the company will send a courier to your home and take an unwrapped item to its warehouse to wrap then ship. Fulfillment by amazon requires you to do the wrapping and shipping (to Amazon). With that said, they only charge a $5 fee for this service, which seems unsustainable.

avalaunch 12y ago
They also get a discount on shipping which they do not pass on to the consumer. As they scale that difference will become larger and larger. I think that's where they expect to get the bulk of their revenue.
Someone1234 12y ago
> With that said, they only charge a $5 fee for this service, which seems unsustainable. Yeah. I don't understand how that even pays the carrier (+fuel). Let alone the packaging and the actual shipping to the end user.
- avalaunch 12y ago
  They don't just charge 5 dollars. They also charge the cheapest retail shipping rate to the consumer. Meanwhile they pay a bulk discounted rate. They pocket the difference.
  - kevingibbon 12y ago
    yep.
JoshTriplett 12y ago
> With that said, they only charge a $5 fee for this service, which seems unsustainable. From the article: > Because it ships so many packages, Gibbon says Shyp gets significant discounts from the major carriers. This makes sense because pooling packages saves their drivers a bunch of trips. “It’s actually a lot cheaper for them to just go here,” Gibbon says. Meanwhile, he says Shyp charges customers the cheapest retail price they would pay to ship an item, which still ends up being more than what the company pays. Shyp keeps the difference. As for paying the couriers: if they can pick up several packages in one trip, that could add up to a decent hourly rate. Large items that result in fewer trips will produce a large shipping cost, out of which Shyp could pay the couriers, while small packages will produce many fees for the couriers.
kevingibbon 12y ago

kevingibbon 12y ago

The big different is cost. We do not have to store any inventory so we can offer the same service for a much lower price point. Instead of a company shipping all their items to amazon, we will fulfill out of your storage/office/home/coffee shop. Plus you don't have to be as organized to pre-ship all your items to amazon's warehouse. Etsy/eBay/Shopfy sellers love it. btw CEO of Shyp here.

bosstwizz 12y ago
How do the economics of dispatching somebody to pick up an item within half an hour work?
- kevingibbon 12y ago
  its really about demand and pickup density. This is why we will launch in major cities first. We spend less than 1min on average pickup up peoples items. So once we are able to get enough demand within a close proximity everything works out great.
  - michaelt 12y ago
    Interesting. What's the model in terms of vehicle ownership and driver salary? Will you be paying the driver a set rate for a set shift driving a company vehicle, as the likes of UPS do, of will you be paying the drivers per collection with them supplying maintaining and insuring their own vehicle, like Uber and Yodel? At the point you become profitable, how many pickups/packages will each driver do per hour, and how much pay will each driver make per hour/pickup/package? How much of the market do you aspire to cover - will your model extend to most of the country, or just dense urban areas with high levels of demand?
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
avalaunch 12y ago
Do you have an api? I can imagine a bunch of ebay tools making good use of it. Also, do you still use EasyPost?

rurounijones 12y ago

> you can do fulfillment by amazon As long as you are willing to risk http://www.fbamastery.com/the-worst-amazon-horror-story-i-have-ever-heard/ http://www.fbamastery.com/the-worst-amazon-horror-story-i-ha...

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
meh_master 12y ago
Wow, reading that kind of pissed me off. Hopefully it gets more attention.
MichaelGG 12y ago
Seems ripe for some mischief. Order from every seller you can, file fake complaints, let Amazon sort it out. Although it sounded more like he was taken down due to an actual lawsuit, not just a customer complaint.