Every day, Team Shippit has hundreds of conversations with businesses of all shapes and sizes, and we started to notice a trend among new business owners. Starting a business is hard work, and learning about retail logistics can make it even more overwhelming. If you’re considering launching your new business or online store soon, we’ve put together the most common eCommerce business questions to help take the stress out of your new venture.
Got a question not covered here? Shoot us a quick note and we’ll get back to you with an answer.
Do you work with smaller businesses/individuals?
Yes, Shippit works with businesses of every shape and size, from the small-batch, artisan soap maker to enterprise-sized retailers like Target.
We have a range of different features that are suitable for all businesses, and whether you need to upload orders manually, bulk upload, sync Shippit with your cart or access our rates via an API, we’ll help you fulfil and ship your customer orders faster than ever.
Do I need my own courier accounts?
Unlike many of the other solutions on the market, Shippit gives you instant access to courier rates without the need to set up your own account.
Shippit has close relationships with all the major couriers in Australia, and the high volume of orders we ship with them every day means you can save on your shipping costs.
All you need to do is create an account and you start shipping right away.
Don’t want to leave your own courier accounts behind? No worries! With Shippit, you can also connect your own courier accounts while also tapping into our discounted rates. Win. Win.
Would I get better rates approaching couriers directly instead of through you?
This question has been on the minds of business creators since the dawn of eCommerce, and with good reason.
If you’re a master negotiator, you may think that you can talk your way into cheaper rates with a wide range of couriers. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for most small business owners.
To create an account with couriers like Fastway and Australia Post, you’ll need to meet the minimum order volume requirement. This means that you’ll often be forced to pre-pay your shipping costs or even purchase pre-paid shipping satchels to ensure you keep up with the account minimums.
Due to this, Shippit doesn’t normally recommend you try and negotiate your own rates unless you have a high steady volume of monthly orders. But if you read the answer to the previous question, we don’t think you’d need to do this anyway. 😉
Can I dropship?
The short answer, no. The long answer, yes.
Dropshipping is a complex business model that requires clear visibility and communication of inventory between suppliers and seller locations.
Many major shopping carts, including Shopify, aren’t able to identify different locations for different SKUs, making it an incredibly manual process to dropship.
If you’re wondering how the big guys like Wish and other giants manage to do it, they’ll generally have enterprise-level inventory and warehouse management systems to power the decision making behind drop shipped orders.
Do you ship large heavy items (furniture)?
Yes, we ship everything from a 500g satchel to a pallet.
Do you link with Shopify?
Yes, Shippit integrates with all the major eCommerce platforms, including Shopify! Our Shopify plugin is quick and easy to install and set up and you can start shipping in under 5 minutes. Learn more about our Shopify connection here.
Check out our other connections here.
What do I do if Shippit doesn’t have an integration with my eCommerce/Inventory Management System (e.g Wix, Squarespace)?
Although Shippit integrates with major platforms like Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce and eBay, there are still some platforms that we don’t have direct connections with.
But fear not!
We’ve built a bulk upload functionality to ensure you can still use all of Shippit’s features without having to manually add orders one by one.
To use our bulk upload features you can use one of two options (or both!):
Do you ship to/from regional or remote areas?
Yes. We’ve worked hard to ensure you have access to couriers all over Australia. This means our couriers deliver all over Australia.
Shippit is a courier aggregator, so we automatically select the fastest and cheapest courier for every order, and when it comes to remote deliveries, you can save on standard rates with our cheaper courier options.
Please note though: If you ship from a remote or regional area, pickup’s may be limited depending on the area. Check out our support article on our pickup network here.
Alternatively, if you’d like to see if you can get a fast pickup in your location you can submit a test order without setting up an account here.
Does Shippit have insurance?
Yes, Shippit does have insurance for our deliveries, but it does vary by courier. You can read more about it here.
Does Shippit supply the satchels?
No, Shippit doesn’t supply satchels with your orders as many businesses prefer to use custom branded satchels and packaging. However, we do have shipping supplies available at wholesale prices on our Supply Store.
Can we print shipping labels on A4 paper?
Printing shipping labels on A4 paper is definitely possible, but it’s not advised.
A4 paper poses a lot of challenges when it comes to shipping labels:
- It’s not easy to scan for couriers, and sometimes they will reject the parcel
- A4 paper can get easily damaged in transit
- A4 paper can get wet in bad weather
- It takes more time to secure the A4 label than it would take to pack the whole parcel
- It isn’t always scannable
For more best practice tips on printing shipping labels, read our post here.