EquaShip, the new US parcel network, today announced partnerships with e-commerce softwareplatforms Vendio Services Inc. and ShipWorks to broaden its customer base among SMEs across the
USA.The Seattle-based start-up said it is now directly integrated into both the Vendio andShipWorks platforms to provide their users with cheaper shipping rates than with UPS or FedEx.Through the partnership EquaShip will appear as the fourth carrier option alongside UPS, FedEx andUSPS on the shipping screens of millions of online merchants, manufacturers and distributors.Parcels shipped through EquaShip.com will join the millions of packages already shipped each weekthrough the same back-end delivery network that is used by Amazon and other major brand merchantstoday.
“Of the many software platforms that shippers use day-in, day-out to process their orders, wehave always known that Vendio and ShipWorks would be among the most important channel partnersthrough which to launch our ground-breaking new service. Their customer bases typify our targetcustomer—small to medium-sized e-commerce sellers, manufacturers and distributors who must struggleto compete in an environment where their larger competitors enjoy heavily-discounted shipping ratesfrom UPS and FedEx,” said EquaShip CEO Ron Wiener.
“The difference in what small shippers pay can be 4 to 5 times greater than what giantshippers like Amazon pay for the same transportation. This is in large part because smallershippers have historically lacked access to the lowest-cost form of residential parcel delivery,postal consolidation. Nearly a billion packages a year are now picked up by consolidators likeFedEx SmartPost and UPS Basic, with “final mile” delivery to the consumer performed by the USPostal Service. EquaShip breaks that barrier down, allowing any shipper—no matter how small—to gainaccess to postal consolidator rates, with full insurance coverage, first-class customer service toboth sender and recipient, and convenient drop-off locations plus pickup service,” said ShawnChilds, EquaShip board member and former UPS and Amazon executive.
Vendio provides a powerful e-commerce software solution for online merchants of all sizes.The Vendio platform enables merchants to simultaneously sell products from an online storefront inaddition to comparison shopping engines, marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, and even Facebook.Vendio simplifies selling across these multiple online channels by allowing merchants to centralizetheir inventory, manage their entire sales cycle, and leverage productivity-enhancing applicationson one integrated platform. The partnership with Vendio allows thousands of online merchants toeasily select EquaShip as a shipping option within the Vendio software.
“Thousands of merchants use Vendio to fulfill orders from eBay, Amazon, and their owne-commerce store. Integrating EquaShip enables Vendio to help these merchants save money and timeon shipping while meeting their customers’ demands for discounted or even the “free” shippingcustomer’s love. We’re excited to provide EquaShip options that can help small and medium sizedsellers compete on a level playing field with larger retailers,” said Vendio CEO Mike Effle.
ShipWorks, Interapptive’s multi-carrier shipping software, integrates with more than 30popular online sales and marketplace systems including eBay, PayPal, Amazon, and Yahoo. Thesoftware provides direct support for all major shipping carriers.
“We are pleased to announce support for EquaShip in ShipWorks. Online merchants can now useShipWorks to process their EquaShip labels directly from within our software, without the need tocopy and paste or re-key address information. The addition of EquaShip continues to build on ourmulti-carrier offering and represents yet another shipping choice for our customers,” said WesClayton, president of Interapptive.
