Shippo, a provider of shipping software, has created an API integration with major ecommerce platform company Shopify, making its tools natively available to millions of Shopify merchants, a process that is being accelerated by a major investment from Shopify.
Shopify is the first named partner in a new Shippo for Platforms offering, which has been live with merchants in the UK for the past six months or so. A lot of the initial focus will be on expanding into markets in Europe, where Shippo has strong carrier relationships. Shopify merchants have had access to Shippo’s services previously through its third-party app store, but that process was seen as clunky.
“We were working on the new platform product, and let some of our partners know about it,” said Vince DeAngelis, SVP of carrier partnerships for Shippo, which last year achieved unicorn status. “Shopify embraced what we were doing and wanted to be involved. They were looking for a partner to make shipping easy, and they liked how we were set up, our network of carriers, the way we work with them as partners, making sure everybody wins.”
DeAngelis said Shippo initially had a strong carrier presence in the UK and Australia, and through interest from partners it’s on track to expand rapidly in France, Spain and Germany. “We’ve started discussions with carriers in India and Japan, and next week we’ll meet a lot of carriers from the Nordics. We’re also expanding in South America.”
The investment from Shopify, he said, was a show of confidence in Shippo as a strategic partner. It does not involve Shopify joining the Shippo board.
“It goes without saying that, to succeed in commerce today, merchants must be able to get packages into the hands of their customers quickly and affordably,” said Kaz Nejatian, VP of Merchant Services at Shopify in a release. “Our partnership with Shippo allows our merchants to meet consumer expectations for convenience, speed, and cost without having to be a shipping expert themselves.”