Test your shipping software - they're not all made the same

I moved from Stamps.com and cut my shipping and customer service time by 80%. I adopted this software at ~15 packages per day because it was more expensive than Stamps.com. Bad move!!! Pay extra for ShipStation from the start.

Pros

I've used ShipStation, ShippingEasy, ShipWorks, Stamps.com, Ordoro, and SolidCommerce with a few clients. My two favorite are ShipStation and ShippingEasy. They both have different strengths - sweat the small stuff because it really makes a difference if you're shipping 200+ packages a day. It's worth using two or more systems and then picking the best. The time spent is worth the effort.

I use ShipStation for managing the shipping and customer service from my website, Amazon, Walmart, Jet, Ebay, and Etsy. The application is rock solid. Creating manual orders is simple, as is importing orders and combining shipments. I like that I can place orders on hold and setup future shipments. Other vendors like ShippingEasy cannot do this (yet). We get a fair number or orders that have a bad address and we're able to put orders on hold until we hear back from the customer. This shipping rules and kitting options are fairly robust. It is easy to identify return customers (this is something not done well by other platforms). The UI is very buttoned-up. ShipStation also has a superior "Search Customers" function that will search on 3 and 4 part names, city, state... Some of the other vendors fail here. Having good search reduces customer service time.

Cons

There are some things that ShippingEasy does better - e.g. they're a single page application and that means that the interface is super fast. ShipStation is slower as you mover around in the interface. I wish that ShipStation could manage my inventory across marketplaces and I'm in love with how some of the other vendors solicit reviews using marketing/email automation. I hope someday that vendors like ShipStation will also connect to Auth.net or Stripe.com so that we can Auth and Settle New Manual Orders. It takes a bit longer to learn ShipStation but if you're running a larger/complicated business you'll come to appreciate the power that comes with the complexity.

With ShipStation, I know there is someone on the other end that cares about my experience

Pros

• I was assigned a specific person as my customer service representative, and when I called with an issue, one of the customer rep picked up the phone and answered my question on the spot; meaning, I didn't have to dial a ton of menu options or wait on hold at all to speak with a person. She is also very responsive to emails. We tend to look at websites and applications as faceless businesses, but with ShipStation I know there is someone on the other end that cares about my experience.

• Integrates seamlessly with Squarespace Commerce account

• Automatically marks order fulfilled when a shipping label is printed

• Connects to printer easier than Stamps.com

Cons

• Have to load balances instead of paying for what you use as you go. I encountered this with Stamps.com as well, but it is annoying because I have to make cash flow considerations when all I need is a few extra dollars to print a label.

• Cannot edit manual orders, need to delete and re-create an order if changing quantity or amount of a product.

• I "chose" ShipStation because it was the only shipping option that would integrate with Squarespace. Most of my issues were encountered while trying to transition from Stamps.com to become familiar with the new platform. Though very similar, ShipStation INITIALLY felt like a clunkier, gaudier version of the same thing. Thankfully, they've recently made some positive design changes. However, there are still some quirky user interface aspects, including:
— animated "help/info" bubbles (which I just figured out how to hide).
— In Stamps.com, I was able to see if my thermal printer was connected (or visible to the website) before clicking "print" — which, when I click, charges the postage to my account regardless if the label actually printed. In ShipStation, I have to click "print" without knowing if the website is able to send the job to the printer. This has resulted in additional postage billed to my account because I clicked "print." I then have to wait for that amount to be refunded in my account. Though I should add, I rarely have printer connection issues with ShipStation, whereas it used to be the bane of my Stamps.com experience.
— Stamps.com also made it easy to see all the USPS shipping options and rates at a glance, while viewing an order. In ShipStation, I either have to select a service, then an option from within that service or open up a separate rate calculator. This makes it harder to find the lowest shipping fee/service or fastest method for its value when modifying individual orders.

Not perfect but very good

I was impressed with options you have in this software to speed up shipping proces. I sell in multiple platforms ( eBay, amazon, and my own ecommerce store) and ship station import all orders into one place. No more login into each of them and ship from there I also ship with multiple carriers ( USPS and FedEx) and there is where ship station is handy I am using stamps.com for 5+ years and I ma very happy with it but stamps will not work with FedEx so I had to sort out orders by shipping method and ship USPS packages using stamps.com and than log into FedEx to ship remaining orders from there. FedEx software it terrible ( on line fedex.com and their shop software ) that it actually increase my shipping time that I was considering to drop FedEx shipping method from all stores. Ship Station make shipping much easier if you use multiple carriers and this is why I use it

Pros

1) Import orders from multiple ecommerce platform
2) One software for multiple shipping carriers and method
3) Great email notification for clients, multiple options of emails and multiple templets
4)inventory tracking
many other good futures

Cons

1) Depend on package you have with ship station support can take long time to answer your question. No phone support for any users and only email support for lowest package. This is not acceptable. When I need to ship and I have issue I need to call somebody and fix problem ASAP. If you send email you can wait who know how long to resolve issue. Live chat is available only for selected ship station clients ( base on how much you are paying = selected package of ship station) and it may take very long time to actually chat with somebody ( we are talking hours in some cases before you are at top of chat queue )
2) you have to press button to read package weight if you have scale attached. This is very annoying if you ever used software with automatic scale. You place package on scale and software already know what you shipping. ( or alarm you when scale is 0 = nothing on scale ). I had packages returned because I did not press "read" scale button and package was over weight compared to postage purchased. Same goes the other way. You pay more for postage if your package is less than what you estimate in your ecommerce platform.
3) FedEx international shipping has big problem. Ship station does not print commercial invoice for international packages. You technically can print label but than you have to go to FedEx and fill out commercial invoice form. I do not understand why it can not be printed at the same time with label. All info is already available ( item, price etc) on ship station after importing order. Ship Station print all required paper work for USPS international packages
4) address verification is not strong future on a software . I am comparing it to a stamps.com again. If client place wrong address on a form ship station will tell you that address is not valid but will not tell you what is wrong and will not suggest correction. Stamps.com will suggest correct zip code , street name , apartment number if it is missing etc. Ship station will only tell you " invalid apartment number" or "apartment not found"
5) international imported addresses create issue sometimes if client used other than English address form. German , Japanese, Spanish language use soft punctuations and different letters like ~ or ę ó ś ć and many similar. Ship station when import such address create strange characters replacing original with something like @##@$%% and if you print it I can guaranty package will not be delivered to a clients since local post office will not recognize street name or town.
6) some countries are not recognized by ship station as international address. Republic of Ireland is not recognized. If client place that name on order form Ship station assign USA address to it. Since this is official name if country my client always put it than way and not Ireland in Country section. They would have to put Ireland instead ( Ireland in country field create correct international destination) Same goes to United Kingdom but England will be correct ( it may be few others - just do not remember )

Amazing Software, Great Support. Would Highly Recommend.

Shipstation tracks packages, manages inventory, labels, and shipping. integrates easily with many different platforms (eBay, Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, ETC.) Ship station can also automate most client communications including eBay feedback, email marketing, messages, and much more. It's like having a custom built CRM that was specifically design for ecommerce / marketplace sellers. It's not something you HAVE to have; almost everything it does can be done manually. Trust me when I say that once you do use it,- you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

Pros

- Customer service is awesome (live chat, phone, email, etc) You're also assigned your own dedicated representative that learns your business model & account. Helpful since they will learn your account over time with you.
- It's inexpensive compared to similar software.
- This a pro AND a con (see below) but you also get a free stamps.com account with Shipstation. In reality its stamps.com that handles your USPS labels (that includes billing for shipping).
- The software just works. It does it's job and it does it extremely well.

Cons

- Don't get why PayPal isn't offered as payment source to ship labels / pay monthly fees. (I ended up just getting paypal business debit card)
- Wish they revamped the pricing structure. If your selling 500-600 avg. each month. Your being charged the same each month for someone that sells 1400-1500 products. Seems to me a pricing structure: 100 / 250 / 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 5000 would make more sense and entice more lower volume sellers to use it.
- SS & stamps.com - The only problems I have had were due to stamps.com and not Ship station. When this happens, you have to reach out to stamps.com for support which can be like pulling teeth. This means your sometimes having to call/email 2 different companies if your having problems with something.
- No offline/desktop version of the software.

Expansive Shipment Management

There's no doubt that ShipStation is built well and has the necessary features to please companies of all sizes. We've found very few problems in our 2-3 years of utilizing the platform and it's the best solution we've found to this point. We would recommend the system to any company looking to expertly manage its shipping operations.

Pros

Our publishing company utilizes ShipStation to handle inventory and shipping management. The system is extremely comprehensive, offering a robust feature set covering orders, shipments, products, customers, and reports. It's easy to set up multiple stores for different aspects of the business in order to keep the silos separate, and alerts draw your eye to the areas that need attention. ShipStation can also be seamlessly integrated with various e-commerce platforms so that orders are ported directly over and into the shipment queue. Once shipped, we enjoy the tracking features that allow our team to check shipment status whenever customers have inquiries. Additionally, there's an insight section that shows how many customers interacted with a their personal tracking pages, how many shipment notifications have gone out in a given time period, and general sales trends.

Cons

The interface isn't the prettiest, but it gets the job done and doesn't suffer from glitches. Occasionally, we have a little bit of trouble locating a specific option because the system has so many features. Perhaps the organization or visibility of some areas could be improved.

V2 Is A Near-Perfect SaaS. V3 Is Half-Baked

As I already mentioned, I love ShipStation. It's really one of my favorite pieces of SaaS. Their customer support is also great. They answer their live chats and emails quickly and always have a solution. Rare, especially for the price of admission.

Pros

The interface in ShipStation V2 is fantastic. As the department manager, I can easily assign orders to my CSR's and use tags to designate anything I want. We use different tags/colors for suppliers, whether we are shipping ourselves or dropshipping, or marking things as HOT! Using the tags to filter, makes it easy to find and sort orders and see what needs to be worked on.

We also use the custom fields for notating PO #'s, which supplier we dropshipped from, and sometimes other important notes.

The interface is so easy on the eyes and the filtering are so good that we use ShipStation instead of ChannelAdvisor to handle our orders.

Another great feature is ShipStation Connect, which allows us to print to anyone's printer, even if they are not on the same network. Fantastic feature, especially, if not everyone has a Zebra printer at their station.

Cons

I wish we could interface with our website. Right now, we're using it with the marketplaces, but our website is on its own, which is unfortunate, because we lose all of that monitoring functionality.

The other con is V3. We tried it. It's very much not ready for prime time. It was buggy. The interface was not as good and the user experience was lacking. What we could do in V2 with a few keystrokes and the Tab key, took several more clicks. We're hoping they fix that up, before forcing the "upgrade."

Shipstation makes shipping from different channels with different methods easy

I've had a great experience with ShipStation. It was easy to connect our stores and other channels and setup our rules. It was also straightforward to train our employees on it. ShipStation has saved us many headaches and a lot of time. We no longer have to ship orders from each channel individually and ship everything from one ShipStation console. We were also able to reduce the number of thermal printers we were using from three down to one. ShipStation is well worth the cost if you are currently shipping from more than one channel or need to setup rules for shipments to follow.

Pros

The best feature of ShipStation is how well it can handle orders from multiple channels (eBay, amazon, website) and ship them without the hassle of going to each channel. It flawlessly imports the orders, creates shipments, verifies addresses, and ships with the preferred method. It also allows you to easily set up rules so you can easily specify how each channel, product, or other various filter is shipped.

Cons

The main feature that I wish this product had is the ability to scan SKU/product ID verification to confirm shipment before shipping. ShipStation does have scan to ship available, where you scan the barcode on the packing slip to bring up the shipment and then ship the item. This is a nice feature, but I would like to to go once step further where you scan the barcode on the packing slip, then you scan the barcode of the SKU/product ID to make sure it was picked properly, then you print the shipping label.

We've tried them all, and are sticking with Shipstation

Pros

We've been involved in ecommerce for 20 years, and have tried *all* the ship programs. Shipstation is program we recommend to most people, and the one we've been using for the past 4+ years. The entry level subscription quickly pays for itself with their access to discounted USPS rates, free tracking on many shipments, and easy side-by-side rate comparisons. And if you're an eBay or Amazon seller, this is the best and easiest.

Cons

No program is a perfect fit for everyone. The mobile app is rubbish on Android, can't create batches, can't print, can't email a PDF. So basically you can confirm orders one at a time and just leave them there until you can log in with a PC. But they have a dedicated development team, I suspect it will improve over time. Also, creating manual orders is straightforward, but a bit cumbersome. They do a great job integrating with eBay, Amazon, Woo Commerce ... but not things like Wix and Shopify (unless you have the Plus account). Again, their team is pretty responsive, so I wouldn't be surprised to see integration of these (and more) in the near future. And a few little bugs on the site (the site freezes frequently on us, we have to log out and log back in). But we don't hesitate giving Shipstation a solid thumbs up.

Great Solution for a Growing Business

A year ago my partner and I started our ecommerce business, and a couple months ago we decided it was time to invest a system to help us automate shipping. ShipStation came recommended from another business we knew, so we used the one-month free trial to give it a try. Within a week or so of getting familiar with the interface, we knew ShipStation was a great fit for us. We were especially happy to see the entry-level tier option of $9/month, which was by far the best value we found among comparable platforms. We also love the inventory management aspect of ShipStation, which we didn't even realize was included at first! The amount of time and energy saved daily by not having to hand write labels, stop at the post office, and manually update inventory is fantastic, especially as those precious hours can be much better spent elsewhere.

Pros

-- Once you've overcome the slight learning curve (stated as a con below), the layout feels very natural and easy to navigate. Hovering beacons help provide tips throughout each screen.
-- Functionality. ShipStation is an incredibly robust platform with tons of aspects to it: multiple sales channels, customization, inventory management, shipping and tracking, customer logs, reporting, the features go on and on.
-- Love the handy calculator tool right on the main screen, which allows you to quickly calculate postage for any type of shipment.
-- Many tools to automate functions and make your work quicker and easier (e.g., setting up filters, rules, and batch actions).
-- Integrates with many, many, many other apps and tools.
-- Save money by using the discounted pricing you receive on postage through ShipStation.
-- Very thorough helpful articles in the Support Center. They also have a forum where you can submit suggestions and feature requests.

Cons

-- Interface is overwhelming at first. Would have loved to receive a short and sweet video introducing me to the main features and organization. The video I did receive upon signing up for the free trial was more of a marketing-focused pitch video, which served no purpose as I was already invested and ready to explore ShipStation.
-- The $9/month tier exists, but not readily available as an option when you’re ready to upgrade from your free trial. I had to submit a request via Live Chat to have this option provided. The lack of transparency was a bit disappointing after everything else felt so customer-oriented.

The best label mailing solution for a multi-channel ecommerce business

A simple and affordable way to buy postage and print labels for ecommerce businesses.

Pros

Shipstation is a fantastic shipping suite for our business. We use the integrations for Shopify, eBay, and Amazon. Orders are automatically imported and we are able to simple and efficiently manage shipments for UPS and USPS. Rates are automatically displayed, invalid address warning shown, and everything can be managed from a web-based UI with remotely connected printers using Shipstation Connect. We are able to use our UPS business account with the UPS integration for our set rates. Labels and Pack Slip templates are customizable and simple to set up. Our 4x6 Brother QL1000 continuous label printer works perfectly with Shipstation and Shipstation Connect, and we use standard letter paper for pack slips.

Cons

The Shipstation android app does not work with Shipstation Connect very well in terms of printers, and there are UI issues with it. On top of that, the Shipstation web-based application does not work well on small browser screens, so it is currently almost impossible and very painstaking to print labels from a phone.