Shyp introduces discount pricing for businesses

Shyp is continuing to invest in the business space with the launch of discount pricing. Merchants can now receive up to 15 percent off their monthly shipping volume, on top of the best-available rate that the service provides through its price comparison tool.

In addition, Shyp has eliminated its limitation of 20 items per pickup. Starting today, businesses can request that a larger quantity of items be shipped, though only through scheduled pickups.

When it launched, Shyp was focused on creating an amazing consumer experience. Company CEO Kevin Gibbon defined customer shipping as one of the “most underserved” markets, but the company always intended to work with small, medium, and larger businesses. The introduction of discount pricing is one step in the long process of wooing more merchants, especially because price is considered a driving factor in deciding which carrier businesses use for shipping.

Merchants with a monthly shipping volume of more than 20 items will receive a 5 percent discount, those with more than 50 items get 10 percent off, and companies that let Shyp handle more than 300 items per month get a 15 percent discount. There’s also a tier for those shipping more than 1,000 items monthly, which the company will provide custom pricing for.

Shyp aims to provide merchants with the best carrier — based on the item and destination — and offers a price comparison that is pretty unique to its service. It’s this technology, along with the discounts, that Gibbon hopes will accelerate onboarding of ecommerce sellers and small businesses.

While the pricing model may be appealing to businesses, Gibbon is under no illusion that Shyp’s job is done. In fact, he shared that other improvements are in the works, such as making the service accessible on the desktop — something that merchants likely prefer over a mobile app; the development of an API; and additional third-party integrations.

Gibbon declined to disclose how many sellers are on the Shyp platform, but he said that it has “tens of thousands” of business customers registered. In addition, half of the company’s revenue comes from ecommerce merchants, which constitute a “small segment” of Shyp’s customer base, so it’s easy to understand why the company is investing so heavily in the business space.

As part of its drive to become the shipping logistics platform of choice for sellers, Shyp has removed the barrier that prevented businesses from fulfilling a large number of items. Gibbon attributed the earlier 20-package limit to the manual tracking process that was in place — every item had bags that needed to be scanned, which was time-consuming. Now bags are provided directly to merchants so they can handle the fulfillment process themselves.

Similar to Uber’s role in the ridesharing space, Shyp sees itself as a facilitator of behind-the-scenes shipping. Consumers find the service useful because of Shyp’s white glove-style offering, but the true value of the company will likely come through on the seller side. And discount pricing is only the start for Shyp, which aspires to become the “Kayak for shipping.” The company has already started an eBay integration that means it’ll provide shipping services for merchants on the platform.

Shyp has clearly seen the fruits of its early efforts, since it’s also now making itself available in 21 new zip codes in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Gibbon thinks Shyp will draw interest among small businesses because dealing with fulfillment is a big pain point for them. “For us, to figure out the packaging and shipping is easier to sell [to the merchant]. But going into a large enterprise, they already have the fulfillment and the larger staff, so the value isn’t as great. We’re best positioned to go after the [small- to medium-sized businesses] first and then figure out how to grow up market,” he said.