Shippo Review
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- Date Established
- 2013
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
Pros
- Easy to use
- Many pricing options
- Discounts available
Cons
- Limited customer support
- Some confusing billing practices
In light of the COVID-19 crisis, Shippo is currently offering its software for free through July 7, 2020. This offer only excludes Shippo’s enterprise-level Premium plan.
Need more information and resources geared toward small business owners during this coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic? Please check out the resource hub we’ve created.
Overview
Shippo is a shipping platform that simplifies eCommerce processes. By integrating Shippo with your shopping cart and marketplaces, you can easily import orders, purchase shipping labels, and print packing slips. Shippo offers users multiple pricing plans to choose from, so it’s easy to find a pricing plan that fits your business.
However, Shippo is not without its drawbacks. The software is still missing a few features that may be deal-breakers for some merchants, and customer support is only available by email and live chat.
Nevertheless, you should take a look at what Shippo has to offer. It’s easy to install and learn, and, depending on your daily order load, it could be the cheapest shipping solution for your online store. Keep reading to learn if you should join the 35,000 users that already use Shippo for their shipping operations. Also, check out our shipping software comparison chart to see your options.
Table of Contents
Pricing
Shippo provides users with a few different pricing models to choose from. Your choice depends primarily upon the number of shipments you send out each month. Here are the available pricing plans:
Note: Shippo also frequently offers discounts on its plans. Be sure to keep an eye out for available promotions!
Pay As You Go
Shippo’s Pay As You Go plan costs $0.05 per shipping label (plus the cost of postage) and includes:
- Up to 5,000 shipments per month
- One user account
- No monthly fees
- USPS discounts
- Global carrier discounts
- Use your negotiated rates
- Unlimited carrier accounts
- Unlimited platform integrations
- Web app
- API for Order Endpoint
- Email customer support
- US address validation
Professional
Pricing for Shippo’s Professional plan varies depending on your monthly shipments. Shippo’s Professional plan costs between $10-$125 per month (plus the cost of postage) and includes everything in the Pay As You Go plan, plus:
- No per-label fee
- Five user accounts
- Email and live chat customer support
- Branded customer experience
- Branded packing slips
- Branded email notifications
- Branded tracking pages
- Custom text for email notifications
Pricing for the Professional plan is based on the number of orders you ship per month. Here are those rates:
- $10/month
- 1-60 labels
- $25/month
- 61-200 labels
- $35/month
- 201-450 labels
- $50/month
- 451-750 labels
- $75/month
- 751-1,750 labels
- $100/month
- 1,751-3,500 labels
- $125/month
- 3,501-5,000 labels
- Custom pricing
- Over 5,000 labels
Premier
Shippo’s Premier plan is available at custom pricing and includes everything in the Professional plan, plus:
- Technical implementation assistance
- Dedicated customer support
- 15 user accounts
- APIs for Order Endpoint and Batch Endpoint
- Multi-piece shipments
- Integration specialist
- À la carte package tracking
- À la carte address verification
In addition to these packages, Shippo offers insurance and global address validation at an additional expense. Pricing for these services is on a per-item basis and depends on your pricing plan. View Shippo’s pricing page for the available rates.
Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed
Shippo is a cloud-based application.
Hardware & Software Requirements
None. Because Shippo is cloud-based software, all you need is a computer, a strong internet connection, and an up-to-date web browser.
Shippo does not currently offer any mobile apps for managing the admin panel.
Shipping Volume Of Business
We think Shippo works best for sellers who ship between 50 and 5,000 orders per month. If you ship fewer than 50 shipments per month, you may be able to take advantage of the free plans offered by other competing shipping software (such as ShippingEasy). If you ship more than 5,000 shipments per month, you’ll likely need access to more features than Shippo has to offer. However, for merchants who fall within that window, Shippo is a great option.
Ease Of Use
There are a few ways you can test out Shippo’s software. You can choose to sign up for a free trial of Shippo, or you can test the platform by just adding Shippo’s Pay As You Go (PAYG) plan to your current eCommerce software. With the PAYG plan, you can play with Shippo’s admin all you want. You just can’t place orders without actually purchasing a shipping label and paying the $0.05 fee.
To test out the platform, I chose to integrate Shippo directly with my Shopify account. All I had to do was enter my Shopify URL when Shippo asked for it. I was then redirected to my Shopify admin panel, where I clicked to confirm the integration. And voila! I had a Shippo account.
Here’s the admin page I first viewed upon creating an account:
I was happy to see that the orders from my Shopify account automatically imported over. I was also pleased with Shippo’s overall admin organization. It’s easy to locate features using Shippo’s toolbar.
To begin my trial, I first attempted to process a few orders. Here is the first page you see when you process an order:
From here, you can add package dimensions and verify product weights and addresses (which are imported automatically from your eCommerce software). You can also choose to add shipping insurance on this page.
Click “See all available rates” at the bottom to see more options from your chosen shipping carriers. Here’s what I can see based on the preferences I set up in settings:
Just select the appropriate option and click “Buy Label.”
As a whole, I found Shippo very simple to operate. I see this ease of use as a great advantage, especially for smaller sellers.
Features
Shippo comes with lots of basic features already built-in. You can view the full feature list on Shippo’s website or take a look at my simplified list below:
- Dashboard: Shippo’s dashboard is well organized and easy to learn.
- Shipping: View and select real-time shipping rates from multiple carriers. Shippo gives you access to discounts on shipping labels with USPS, UPS, and DHL (for US-outbound shipments only). You can also purchase discounted shipping insurance directly from your Shippo admin.
- Multi-Channel Sync: Connect easily with multiple shipping carriers, marketplaces, and eCommerce software. Automatically sync your orders and tracking numbers between platforms and manage everything from one admin.
- Shipment Tracking: Get shipping ETAs that display shipment origins and destinations.
- Reports: Shippo enables you to view reports on how much you’ve spent on shipping, the number of labels you purchase daily, and the average price per package.
- Shipping Labels: Shippo offers batch label printing features, which are a necessity for every shipping software. Print up to 100 labels at once. Scan-based return label features enable you to include return labels in your shipments; you’re only charged if they’re used.
- International Shipping: Print customs forms for overseas shipments.
- Customer Email Notifications: Notify your customers when products ship.
- Built-In Address Validation: Shippo double checks customer addresses to make sure they are real addresses. Address validation is included for free with US shipments.
While Shippo has enough features to support many smaller businesses, it’s missing some important features that I’d like to see added. For example, Shippo does not currently include important security features such as customizable user permissions.
Integrations & Add-Ons
Shippo integrates with 59 shipping carriers, eCommerce platforms, inventory management software, ERPs, and marketplaces. Here are a few names you may recognize: Amazon, Etsy, Zapier, Shopify, Squarespace, BigCommerce, and Weebly.
You can also import order information to Shippo via CSV files or by connecting your software via Shippo’s API for Order Endpoint.
Customer Service & Support
Shippo offers a number of different customer support resources. You can contact a representative via email and live chat, and there are also a few self-help options available. Here are Shippo’s support options:
- Email: All users have access to personalized support via email.
- Support Form: Submit a support form, and have customer support reach out to you via email.
- Live Chat: Users on the Professional and Premier plans can access customer support through live chat.
- Help Center: Search Shippo’s Help Center for articles and FAQs that answer your questions.
- White Papers: Shippo’s white papers include relevant surveys, reports, and ebooks. Shippo’s Learning Center includes more guides and expert advice.
- Videos: Shippo’s YouTube page features short tutorial videos that teach Shippo’s basic features.
- Find An Adviser: Users on the Premier plan gain access to dedicated customer support.
- Blog: Read product announcements and articles on efficient shipping practices.
- Social Media: Shippo has active accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
User Reviews
Negative Reviews & Complaints
In general, customers approve of Shippo. However, the software still has room to improve. Here’s a brief list of what customers tend to complain about:
- Billing Issues: Users report unexpected charges on shipping labels and difficulties getting refunds on canceled postage.
- Poor Customer Support: I’ve seen an increasing number of complaints regarding Shippo’s response time. It seems reps are slow to get back to email requests for support. Furthermore, some customers are frustrated that they cannot call in with questions.
- Discounts Are Not The Lowest: Some users report that Shippo’s discounted shipping rates are not as low as those offered by its competitors.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
As I’ve said, customers are mostly happy with Shippo. Here are the reasons they approve of the platform:
- Easy To Use: Shippo is very easy to use. I was able to figure out basic features without ever needing to visit the support documentation.
- Easily Integrates: Shippo easily integrates with many popular shopping carts, which makes daily operations a whole lot easier.
- Flexible Pricing Model: Merchants love the PAYG pricing model. This model lets smaller merchants access automated shipping at a very low rate. I like that Shippo also now offers Pro and Premier plans that are better suited to most sellers.
Security
Shippo does not offer any advanced security features, such as the ability to set user permissions for different user accounts. This means that everyone who accesses Shippo has the same permissions as the account owner. Shippo does not offer much information on its data security. The company is compliant with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, and we have seen that the site uses HTTPS security in the admin. However, aside from this, we weren’t able to find much information on Shippo’s security protocols.
Final Verdict
If you’re looking for shipping software that lets you pay for only the services you need, Shippo may be the way to go. Shippo’s flexible pricing models make the software accessible to many different types of merchants. Also, Shippo’s simple UI and strong usability result in software that is a great option for merchants without a lot of technical experience.
That said, Shippo is not a perfect option. Customer service could use some improvement, and there are a few areas (such as security) in which Shippo could expand its features. Nevertheless, for many merchants, Shippo could be a good software solution.
Sign up for a trial of Shippo to learn more or take a look at this comparison chart of our favorite shipping software.
Liz Hull
Liz Hull is a writer for Merchant Maverick. In her three years with Merchant Maverick, she has tested and reviewed over 40 eCommerce platforms and published two ebooks on the topic of online selling. Liz has also been published in Startup Nation and Home Business Magazine Online. Liz has a BA in English and Spanish from George Fox University.
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Organization Name: WebBuildersny
I tried shippo API 2 times, both times after a week I got an API error that my account has been suspended. I didnt do anything suspicious (the accounts were still in testing. I never even used it in live mode) soppurt couldn’t resolve the issue in time ( when the website needed to be published)
Organization Name: Lawson Equipment
Shippo advertises low international DHL rates but then charges you with “Remote Area and Dimensional Surcharges” weeks later. For instance, we sent two shipment to Tasmania at an advertised rate of $100.25 & $39.14. But then two weeks later they charged us an additional $47.92 for a (Remote Area Service and Dimensional Surcharge) for one package and an additional $40.00 for a (Remote Area Service) for the other one. So advertised rates of $139.39, but actual charges of $227.31When I asked Shippo about it, they sent me a 234 page pdf from DHL on remote service areas. So buyer beware.
Organization Name: Heirloom Traditions Paint
No stars, going on 5 days with no support, terrible customer service and continual crashes. We can’t just wait five days and not ship things,
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Meh, savings are greatly exaggerated. I save about 10% on flat rate boxes which is nice but the last 3 packages I went to ship that were larger were significantly more expensive through shippo. For example, I had a large 13 lb package, shippo’s cheapest shown price was $66 through USPS priority mail while through the USPS website it was only $46 for the same exact service and UPS was $34. No idea where Shippo gets their prices from, I will continue to use them for flat rate packages but nothing else.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
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Organization Name: Gary's Neat Stuff
Nothing but unresolved issues since Shippo took over shipping from Canada Post with Ebay. Half the time transfer from Ebay to ship a sale doesn’t register. Went to change my address on my account and edit screen wouldn’t work. Had unsuccessful contact and suggestions to remedy this from their help crew. Finally cancelled account and attempted to start over only to find I can’t use my email address as it has been suspended by them to re-register. Sorry Ebay has picked them to service their clients. I’ll just stick with Canada Post web site postage from now on.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
It was a five star until this last week. Lack of support. Going on 7 days and issue is not resolved. Not sure if they are going thru changes or understaffed.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Good Used Goods
I did like shippo. Until they decided to auto bill me a monthly amount of $10 for a subscription i did not set up for. Further more they have removed the Canada post discounts you may have had. That depends on the volume of shipping. For example I had a package 8 x 6 x 4 inches and 1lb. Cost to ship it within province with shippo was $12.18, is now $14 (No more Canada post discount!) Also for me to ship with Canada post direct off the website was only $11.18! So cheaper then shippo that ebay try to make you auto use. Best bet is to use pay pay/canada post or Freightcom.com Same package with freightcom was $9.90 and took 2 days with tracking. Last month I saved $460 on shipping not using shippo. GIVE UP ON THESE GREEDY PIGS AND MOVE ON TO BETTER THINGS! IT SAVES MONEY AND TIME NEVER USING SHIPPO. I ship 100 plus items a month so I do have a good idea on shipping and they are the worst. My other big issue is being charged over weight on packages that I check with Canada post and have Canada Post scale weights on! Currently in a battle with shippo about this and will be taking legal action soon.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Black Dog Enterprises
My main questions is if I ship small packages 1st class, do I get a tracking number with those packages?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Gary,
If using USPS it doesn’t look like you’d receive a tracking number. This link may be a good resource for you. I hope that helps!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.