Shipsi, the startup working on last-mile delivery network aggregation, has announced that it has significantly expanded on its ecommerce and retail partners across the country. Founded in 2017, the company has found impressive traction in the market, growing from providing services across 150 cities in the last quarter of 2018 to 600+ cities in the first quarter of 2019 – a four-fold increase in city coverage.
The company’s latest partner additions span various omni-channels within the retail space. “Partners include ShipBob, a tech-enabled fulfillment service; Orderful, a cloud EDI solution; Rogue Advising, an ecommerce strategy firm; Guidance, which provides digital commerce solutions; and Arka, which provides custom boxes and branded packaging. The partnership extends Shipsi’s and ShipBob’s networks, enabling both brands to make faster deliveries in more locations and servicing more ecommerce brands,” said Shipsi in a statement.
“It was pretty painful to expand the strength of our partners. We went through a list of over 86 last-mile partners and in there, we found many smoky mirrors. For instance, there would be a claim on a last-mile company’s website that it was present in 25 cities. But only after countless call exchanges, would we realize that they are present just in New York and have about 30 drivers working for them there,” said Chelsie Lee, CEO and co-founder at Shipsi.
Lee explained that the startup is focused on assessing the demand coming from its retail partners, listening and taking stock of their needs, and revamping and fine-tuning Shipsi’s business based on demand.
“About a year back, we would have to meet up with a brand, pitch them on the fact that they wouldn’t pay for shipping and that Shipsi would not interfere with their existing business systems. Now, we come in as a strategic partner, as we are involved and connected to the entire supply chain,” said Lee. “We are like the last missing piece of a puzzle for a company’s supply chain – from both the technology and solutions standpoints to meet consumer demand.”
Shipsi has worked through many pilots on its last-mile network, and during every instance that the company found itself in a situation that could be made better, Shipsi ended up developing software that ultimately improved the success and accuracy rate of delivery. Lee mentioned that this made retailers realize that they could convincingly enhance the speed of their last-mile delivery – if they chose to work with Shipsi.
Shipsi was initially created as an aggregation tool for traditional logistics. But company staff realized that retail brands were struggling to meet consumer demands on fast shipping, due to opacity in the last-mile and also because of the extensive fragmentation in the market. What followed was Shipsi’s aggregation of the last-mile network, capitalizing on the aggregation to get broader geographic coverage and the ability to deliver specific goods based on size, weight and dimensions.
“We are continuously working to complete the last-mile circle and the partnerships we have created over the last six months are just the beginning. These relationships have opened up a wider and deeper retail reach for us to expand to larger retailers and higher volume delivery,” said Lee. “In an age where two-day shipping is the norm, retailers constantly struggle to find a cost-effective solution. With Shipsi’s expanded list of partners that touch all aspects of omnichannel – fulfillment, packaging, EDI, etc., we’re poised to help retailers of all sizes deliver goods faster to their customers.”