We are building more tools for customer satisfaction
Shipster is a custom shipping integration platform developed by Oddsphere Ltd, connecting e-commerce warehouses with leading couriers worldwide. Clients include many fast-growing UK fashion brands such as AYBL, Lounge and Rixo. Shipster is best known for its unmatched level of shipping rule customisation for warehouse packing benches and other highly bespoke software integrations. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Founder & MD Tony Cheetham discusses the inspiration and journey of the platform.
Can you provide an overview of Shipster and its mission?
Shipster is a shipping integrations platform that provides connectivity between the customers’ despatch platform and over 100 couriers worldwide. We cover all aspects of a shipper’s needs, from labelling and documentation to customs clearance and tax reporting. Our mission is simple; to build software that works for the client and provide top-tier customer service along the way.
What inspired you to start Shipster, and what gap in the market are you aiming to fill?
Shipster grew from possibly the best type of inspiration: necessity. We built Shipster to fulfil a specific purpose for a specific client. And as time progressed, we added more requirements as we added more clients, always working towards providing what our customers needed, and not what we wanted to sell. Building to requirements is possibly the best way to build software, and it is only possible when you bootstrap like we have.
The gap in the market is huge, and largely hidden from both clients and our partners. There are so many software packages out there dealing with inventory and order management that have under-developed courier services, or none at all. We are plugging that gap, providing a fully-fledged mature shipping platform that can be easily integrated with.
How does Shipster differentiate itself from other similar platforms or services in the industry?
We built our platform from day one to be as dynamic as possible. We only have one version of Shipster, but it is heavily customisable per client. And best of all, we include this in our standard costs which are significantly cheaper than most of our competitors. With our industry-disrupting ‘no-label pricing’ you only pay licensing costs for using our software and ship as many parcels as you like.
Could you walk us through the process of how Shipster works for both customers and shipping partners?
The setup and configuration for each client is completely different. The process starts at the first meeting with our on-boarding team who will spend time with warehouse managers and logistics teams to work out how they work at the moment, extracting as much information as they can, and then finding all of the weak spots and trouble points that exist. We will then configure our systems to work with their existing processes and iron out any kinks.
At its heart Shipster takes shipping data and prints a label, but there is so much more going on behind the scenes.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in growing Shipster, and how have you overcome them?
Building a business from scratch has meant we have had to be careful with our growth strategy. This has meant at times we have had to restrict the intake of new clients and new partners to ensure the best quality service.
We have also applied that strategy to recruitment, handpicking a small but brilliant team who subscribe to our mission. Out of a team of 14, we have a small development team who make every line of code they write count. Every feature is written for the most impact, and we delicately balance the financial impact against the customer satisfaction.
In the early years of Shipster, we faced resistance from established couriers, with some refusing to even speak to us. The courier industry was quite old fashioned in how it approached technology and IT, and although things are getting much better, there is a lot of work for them to do.
Today, word of the positive impact our platform has on businesses has spread, and we no longer struggle speaking to couriers, in fact, we have a waiting list to join.
How do you ensure reliability and quality in the services provided through Shipster?
We have always looked at reliability as something that benefits us more than our clients. A functioning system means fewer complaints, less support, fewer lost clients, and a better reputation. It is worthwhile spending the time ensuring things run smoothly, so you have less problems yourself. We have also been able to leverage good technology to help us with this, and we are quite proud of the fact that our IT costs are less than 1 per cent of our annual turnover, despite being a SAAS company, and we have maintained 99.99995 per cent availability over our entire history.
Can you share any success stories or notable achievements that Shipster has had since its inception?
We have just recently welcomed five of the top 100 fastest growing companies in the UK onto our roster, which is certainly something to crow about. But I prefer to shout about our 92 per cent retention rate with clients. If we remove companies no longer trading, we are closer to 95 per cent. Clients love us, and they stay with us.
How do you approach sustainability and environmental responsibility in the shipping industry?
Shipster has committed to creating integrations into our system for any environmentally friendly platforms. We integrate for free any low/no carbon delivery services, even if they cover only a tiny fraction of our user base. We do not have much say in how our clients run their operations, but we can provide the options for them to make the right choices when they arise such as custom shipping rules and paperless trading.
We have pledged to always implement any technology that will have a beneficial environment impact, and we push clients to remove unnecessary waste from their shipping process. As part of this commitment, we are also about to launch an e-mail based electronic invoice/tracking system that will reduce paper usage further.
What are your plans for the growth and expansion of Shipster?
Shipster has always grown by word of mouth and reputation, which can only take you so far. So, we have recently appointed a sales and partnerships director James Stockton, who will be getting the word out about Shipster and establishing new partnerships with new platforms. As we expand into more platforms, we are also expanding our markets, with new courier integrations in the Middle East and Europe.
How do you envision Shipster evolving in response to changes and advancements in the shipping and logistics industry?
Shipping and logistics is a very fluid market and always has been. From dealing with Brexit challenges, to the changes brought about by COVID-19 and the work from home phenomenon, we are always working on new solutions.
Customers generally have an unfavourable view of the shipping part of the sales process, so we are building more tools for customer satisfaction to make sure that customers are happy with the service they get, and when they are not, they have the means to have their complaint heard. This also gives our clients the opportunity to respond to those complaints and avoid the mistakes in future.
Lastly, what strategies do you believe are most effective in addressing challenges related to last-mile delivery and urban congestion?
We see the smaller no-carbon services stepping in here. In increasingly pedestrianised urban areas, the larger delivery vans are being phased out, and more local, smaller delivery services are making more sense. While the emergence of the gig economy has created new challenges, it is ideally suited to something like couriering where you are never fully sure of expected volumes, or the hours needed.
The use of parcels lockers should also be rapidly accelerated; the UK, in particular, is lagging behind massively here. One van delivering 100 parcels to one set of lockers can save an entire days’ worth of carbon from being driven around our residential areas.
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