We are really excited for our customer RockGardn.com who was profiled in The Wall Street Journal today. We are proud to be helping merchants reach new markets, cut shipping costs and grow their sales. Our innovative ecommerce order fulfillment and warehouse logistics service is providing merchants a new tool for International success. You can read about how Shipwire is helping merchants like RockGard’n by visiting our news page.

High fuel surcharges are affecting everything from pricing to the bottom line for businesses of all sizes. Some can’t afford to cut back on offering “free shipping” for goods bought online. And many are scrambling for solutions.

Rockgardn Sports Inc., a small maker of off-road body armor and outerwear for dirt-bike riders and cyclists, thinks it has found one in an order fulfillment service… that offers small businesses the option of housing their inventory in locations closest to where the orders are coming from. For example, when the service gets a Rockgardn order from a Canadian customer, it ships the item from its Canadian warehouses in either Vancouver or Toronto, thereby greatly reducing costs and shipping times for customers there. Read The Article.

E-commerce software and services provider Miva Merchant has joined with order fulfillment services provider Shipwire to help small and medium-size merchants store and ship their products.

Shipwire’s Store-Sell-Ship™ platform will be added to Miva Merchant’s online store software, giving customers a complete solution for online retailers including store design tools, marketing services, and built-in payment and shipping options … With a global network including warehouses in Los Angeles, Reno, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the UK, Shipwire allows merchants to drastically reduce shipping costs by locating inventory closer to buyers.. Read Article

In preparation for the busy holiday season, Shipwire Inc., an e-commerce order fulfillment service, has released “Five Steps to Holiday E-commerce Success,” a special promotion offering free international order fulfillment to support e-tailers’ overseas expansion and celebrate enhancements to the Shipwire Store-Sell-Ship™ platform.  Read the Article

–Do you know about ecommerce, warehousing, logistics, procurement or project management?
–Maybe you are you recently out of the military and were in logistics and procurement?
–Are you ready to join a startup environement (with real revenues)?

Read on….

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Company Description:
Shipwire provides businesses with ecommerce order fulfillment services, powered by a global warehouse network and the Store-Sell-Ship™ platform. Shipwire eliminates the hassle of storage and shipping so merchants can focus on growth. With warehouses in Los Angeles, Nevada, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the UK. Shipwire allows merchants to drastically reduce shipping costs by locating inventory closer to buyers. Usage-based plans start at just $29/month and enable merchants to locate inventory in all warehouses with no contract commitments.

Shipwire is a well-funded Silicon Valley/Los Angeles startup that is changing the shipping and storage game for growing businesses.

Job Description:
This is a unique position for somebody with a warehouse, shipping and logistics background to participate in a software startup.

Shipwire has an opening for an experienced self-starter who is enthusiastic and motivated. This candidate will provide logistics coordination and general office administration support to our growing team of professionals. The position will require the candidate to be involved in all aspects of the operation. This is a great opportunity for someone to grow with the Company and obtain international business exposure.

The ideal candidate will be comfortable balancing a variety of job responsibilities in a fast-paced, friendly and team-oriented atmosphere. The candidate must take initiative and follow-through on assignments. This is an opportunity for a well organized, detail oriented, effective, assertive, and self-motivated individual, who will learn and take on a variety of job tasks at a high pace.

Responsibilities:
• Support global logistics and fulfillment operations
• Create, maintain and report on fulfillment centers’ performance metrics
• Schedule and track shipments
• This position will include some domestic and international travel
• Ability and willingness to work variable hours as required (We are a software/logistics startup. This is a salary position and not hourly.)
• Organize commercial documents
• Communicate with our nation-wide and international network of warehouses
• Communicate with freight forwarders and shipping companies.
• Track inventory across all warehouses in the network
• General office administration

Hiring Criteria:
• Minimum 3 to 5 years of relevant work experience (Military procurement or logistics background very relevant)
• Experience and knowledge working with domestic and international small package carriers (FedEx, UPS, USPS, Canada Post, Royal Mail, Deutsche Post), air/ocean freight forwarding companies
• Experience and basic knowledge of US Customs documentation requirements and clearance
• Valid drivers license
• Excellent PC skills using Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop.
• Articulate in both written and verbal communications of the English language required; Chinese language highly desirable
• Extremely reliable, detailed oriented and personable
• Able to take initiative, prioritize and complete several tasks at the same time
• Motivated, organized and responsive
• Sense of humor!

Compensation/Benefits:
• Performance will be rewarded
• Compensation will depend on experience
• Medical/dental benefits, vacation and other great motivational “startup” benefits
• Exciting startup environment and great people to work with

NO RELOCATION

Please respond only if you meet the requirements for this position.

Local candidates only, no relocation (Los Angeles, CA).

Contact: jobs.17@shipwire.com

Keywords (don’t read into this if your a candidate, we’re just trying to get our posting found by job searchers):
3PL, customs broker, freight forward, third party logistics, warehouse, ecommerce, software, office manager, project coordinator, shipping expert, parcel, packaging, assistant, small business service, SaaS, customer support, support manager, office coordinator, project manager, event coordinator, product management, military, army, navy, air force, marines, procurement, admin assistant, personal assistant, event coordinator

Company Description:
Shipwire provides businesses with ecommerce order fulfillment services, powered by a global warehouse network and the Store-Sell-Ship™ platform. Shipwire eliminates the hassle of storage and shipping so merchants can focus on growth. With warehouses in Los Angeles, Nevada, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the UK. Shipwire allows merchants to drastically reduce shipping costs by locating inventory closer to buyers. Usage-based plans start at just $29/month and enable merchants to locate inventory in all warehouses with no contract commitments.

Domain: Experience with small businesses, e-commerce and/or logistics a big plus.

Job Description:
We are looking for sales professionals to be responsible for closing new business from potential customers. With a base salary and a variable compensation based on actual commissions, you will be responsible for sales quota attainment through the development and closure of leads. You will aggressively follow-up on all leads generated by marketing programs. You will also initiate cold calling into lead lists to uncover new business opportunities. Additionally, you will work with a sales & support organization during the selling process.

This position will be expected to perform articulate, professional, and knowledgeable outbound sales calls, telemarketing calls and electronic communication to customers and prospects in order to acquire new business:

- Conduct thorough follow-up on leads/lists generated by marketing programs.

- Conduct research to identify companies to target for cold calls.

- Maintain close relationship with sales organization to increase chance of closure.

- Obtain thorough knowledge of company’s product solutions, case studies, and business value to identify and drive qualified leads and close business.

- Achieve or exceed all monthly and quarterly sales quotas.

- Call previously acquired customers to identify new opportunities and ensure customer satisfaction.

- Record all communication, sales and lead qualification activity into Salesforce.com CRM system.

Required Skills/Experience:

- 3-5+ years of telesales experience in a high-tech, business-to-business environment with outbound cold calling and order closure.
- Proven track record of meeting and exceeding sales objectives.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication (oral & written) skills.
- Excellent knowledge of telemarketing best practices and proven qualification skills via phone.
- Proven comfort and skill to navigate through all levels of an organization, and dig into a customer’s business to help them improve their operations.
- 3-5+ years experience using online services, such as eBay, PayPal, shopping carts, Google AdWords and/or Facebook.
- Thorough understanding of an online store.

NO RELOCATION

Compensation is based on earnings history and experience.

Please respond only if you meet the requirements for this position.

Local candidates only, no relocation (Sunnyvale, CA).

Contact: jobs.192@shipwire.com

With the holidays fast approaching many businesses are now receiving inventory from domestic and international suppliers. Many merchants are looking for overflow storage and additional warehouse space in the U.S., Canada and Europe. If this is you, your first stop should be Shipwire. To make it easy, we have released a new offer to try Shipwire for no risk. 50 free orders fulfilled by Shipwire from any of our warehouses located in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Learn how to get 50 orders fulfilled for no cost. To see our press release announcing the offer visit Shipwire In the News.

International Order Fulfillment Service Offers Step-by-Step Getting Started Guide, Holiday Promotion and New Features to Help Develop Sales in the U.S. and Overseas

Sunnyvale, CA, August 18, 2008 For online retailers, the bright spot for 2008 holiday sales is predicted to come from a 14.3 percent growth in U.S. e-commerce over last year (eMarketer, May 2008); and, expansion of online sales abroad, giving e-tailers additional markets to pursue. In preparation for the busy holiday season, Shipwire Inc., a leader in e-commerce order fulfillment services, has released “Five Steps to Holiday E-commerce Success,” a special promotion offering free international order fulfillment to support e-tailers’ overseas expansion and celebrate enhancements to the Shipwire Store-Sell-Ship™ platform (http://www.shipwire.com/holiday).

“Large international retailers offer online buyers local shipping options that guarantee timely delivery of orders at ground shipping rates. Shipwire levels the playing field and gives small e-tailers access to a global order fulfillment service specifically modeled on successful Fortune 500 fulfillment and shipping best practices. Online retailers have a great opportunity for international growth this holiday season - Shipwire’s ‘Five Steps to Holiday Success’ promotion provides a risk-free opportunity for small businesses to expand into new markets,” said Damon Schechter, founder and CEO of Shipwire and best-selling author of Delivering the Goods: The Art of Managing Your Supply Chain (Wiley, 2002). “The Shipwire Store-Sell-Ship™ platform allows e-tailers to focus on growing their business in the U.S. or overseas by eliminating the hassles of inventory storage and order shipping.”

International Markets Bring Holiday Cheer: Shipwire Helps E-tailers Go Global

A number of variables make the current environment ideal for online retailers to grow sales in the UK and Europe this holiday season. UK and European online sales have traditionally trailed the U.S. in growth percentages. This is no longer the case as each market is expected to gain significantly in the coming years. According to Jupiter Research, e-tailers targeting overseas markets see the most promise in Europe, which is experiencing fast online sales growth. In the 10 largest European markets between 2006 and 2012, online retail sales are predicted to grow 137 percent from €56.9 billion to €134.8 billion (Jupiter Research, May 2008).

Established e-tailers are using e-commerce tools and sales processes honed in the U.S. market over the past 10 years to expand overseas successfully. Shipwire provides outsource warehouse and order fulfillment services that enable e-tailers to enter foreign markets without having to manage additional employees or make large capital investments in warehouses. Using Shipwire, online retailers can offer customers faster order delivery at lower shipping rates than traditional international parcel shipping. According to Mr. Schechter, “The largest online retailers don’t ship all orders from one central warehouse — they diversify inventory globally across multiple warehouses, and ship orders from the warehouse closest to the end customer. Shipwire allows e-tailers of any size to plug into this kind of global warehouse network starting at $30/month.”

Currently, shipping from six warehouse locations—with the most recent addition servicing Europe from the United Kingdom—Shipwire increased by 80 percent the volume of packages shipped during the last six-month period over the previous six-month period. With the opening of the UK warehouse in June 2008 to augment the Toronto and Vancouver warehouses, which opened December of 2007, international shipments grew from 2.9 percent in Q4 2007 to 9 percent by the end of Q2 2008.

Mark Carlton of http://www.Rockgardn.ca states, “We knew our products would sell well in Canada. We didn’t want to miss the fall riding season, and certainly couldn’t miss the 2008 holiday sales season. We worked with Shipwire to get inventory moved into Canada when we launched a customized Canadian site for our off-road body-armor and protective outerwear. From idea to production in less than two months, we are now selling to dealers and direct to consumers in Canada as though we were local.”

Five Step Guide and Shipwire Order Fulfillment Promotion Gears E-tailers Up for a Successful Holiday Selling Season

For e-tailers that want to automate order fulfillment and expand into the U.S., Canada or Europe this holiday season, Shipwire has created “Five Steps to Holiday E-commerce Success” guide and promotion that includes a free trial, free logistics consultation with a Shipwire expert and a limited-time offer of 50 orders fulfilled free-of-charge from any Shipwire warehouse. For more information visit: http://www.shipwire.com/holiday
According to Schechter, “The Shipwire holiday promotion is intended to eliminate cost concerns and demonstrate to merchants that Shipwire is their partner for U.S. and overseas growth. The promotion includes unlimited free access to the Shipwire Store-Sell-Ship™ platform, coupled with 50 orders fulfilled free of any Shipwire charges out of one or all of our warehouses across the U.S., Canada or Europe. Shipwire fully integrates with retailer Web stores; orders are closed normally; and, are automatically routed to Shipwire. With our system, orders are analyzed and shipped from the warehouse closest to the buyer—guaranteeing fast delivery at the lowest shipping price. By locating inventory closer to shoppers, e-tailers using Shipwire deliver orders throughout the U.S., Canada and the UK in one to two days—for the price of a local-ground delivery. Compared to alternative ‘single-warehouse’ fulfillment solutions and international shipping, Shipwire retailers get orders to customers faster and cheaper without customs risks.”

New Shipwire Features and Integrations Further Automate Sales
Building upon the proven success of the Shipwire Store-Sell-Ship™ platform, Shipwire is also launching new features and service enhancements in time for the holidays, including:

• Shipping Optimization: Now available for free in all Shipwire accounts. A one-button selection in an e-tailer’s Shipwire account ensures a shipment will be sent using the most cost-effective shipping method available from the major parcel carriers. Don Chernoff of Skyroll.com, maker of carry-on garment bags, states, “The shipping optimization feature will make sure that I always get the best shipping rate, without me having to judge which carrier should be used. More shipping savings with less time.”

• Expanded International Shipping Options: With the low dollar and high European demand, the UK warehouse continues to expand its traffic. Now all accounts will include the option to access the UK warehouse at no additional charge. Shipwire provides a UK e-commerce order fulfillment warehouse guide to aid retailers with common questions and shipping options as they enter the UK and Europe.

• Single-Click Warehouse Insurance: With one click, retailers can add insurance to inventory stored by Shipwire. No longer will e-tailers need to turn to third-party insurers and their reams of paperwork to keep their inventory properly insured against loss. This additional inventory insurance augments the standard Shipwire warehouse guarantees and provides the retailer with proof of insurance.

• New Integrations: The Shipwire e-commerce developer partner and affiliate program is continuing to grow. New integrations and partners include: Miva Merchant®, Amazon® Seller Central, NetSuite®, 1ShoppingCart®, ProStores® by eBay®, Zoovy®, and support for the PayPal® shopping cart. Each of these integrations have a connection wizard within the Store-Sell-Ship™ platform, insuring easy and accurate connections with no custom development needed. For a complete listing of Shipwire compatible e-commerce tools. E-commerce developer tools including an API make integration easy; and, the e-commerce partner program provides lucrative commissions. For a complete list of new enhancements to the Shipwire solution, and tips for retailers looking to go international, visit the Shipwire order fulfillment blog.

###

About Shipwire (http://www.shipwire.com)
Shipwire provides growing e-tailers with e-commerce order fulfillment services powered by a global warehouse network and its Store-Sell-Ship™ platform. Shipwire eliminates the hassle of storage and shipping, so merchants can focus on growth. With warehouses in Los Angeles, Reno, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the UK, Shipwire allows merchants to drastically reduce shipping costs by locating inventory closer to buyers. Usage-based plans start at just $29/month, and enable merchants to locate inventory in all warehouses, with no contract commitments. Shipwire is the only warehouse logistics service that instantly integrates with shopping carts and inventorymanagement systems. Shipwire is developer and partner friendly; learn more about our e-commerce developer affiliate program. Get our outsourced e-commerce order fulfillment guide. For a free trial or more information, contact 1-888-SHIPWIRE or visit http://www.shipwire.com/trial.

Contact: Press (at) shipwire (dot) com

“The end of the dream” discussed the Inland Empire, the large swath of suburban strip malls, suburbs and warehouses East of Los Angeles. The article highlighted the beating this area took in the credit crunch/housing crisis that has been unfolding for the past year. It went on to cover more hard times head because the Inland Empire is “America’s warehouse: goods, mostly from China, are sorted and assembled there before being distributed across the country.” The Economist went on to say that the area’s tax revenues may continue to decline because import volumes into the largest ports near the Inland Empire warehouse district (Long Beach and Los Angeles) were down by 15% and 12% respectively. This was not a narrowly focused article on the Inland Empire; the theme is clear - Economic forecasters need to pay particular attention to inbound logistics and import volumes as they apply to local economic growth.

Shipwire is located in Sunnyvale and quite a few of the staff here live in and around the San Francisco area. One thing that has been noted walking around downtown San Francisco is that the streets and retail shops are very full. It has been fairly well documented in the New York Times, The Economist and some of the other big financial papers that the low dollar (verse other currencies) has bought a plethora of foreign travelers that are essentially on spending sprees. This has been fantastic for downtown merchants in the big U.S. cities of San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, etc. As we have documented in previous blog postings, the low dollar has also increased U.S. exports and international shipping. It is one reason we opened our UK warehouse and offered a promotion for international order fulfillment.

This brings us to two additional Economist articles, discussing the recent bounce in the U.S. dollar against the Yen and Euro. In “A Problem Shared“, The Economist writers detail the recent dollar increase. In “That Sinking Feeling” The Economist points out that the dollars rise is not an indicator of dollar strength; rather, weakness of the other economies.

Other than the obvious fact that we read the Economist here; what does all this mean for small businesses trying to sell through this holiday season? Reading these articles together, we can stitch together a big picture. Imports in the U.S. are down, this is causing warehouses to be less full (consider revisiting your warehouse lease)and, while hurting areas the Inland Empire of Los Angeles, seeing American exports rise. Over the past few quarters those exports were consumed by particularly hungry shoppers in Europe, Asia and worldwide (some of which are actually traveling to big cities in the U.S. to vacation/shop). The question is will we see international consumption of U.S. exports slow due to the rising dollar? Keep an eye out and also keep an eye on whether smiling international shoppers are still carrying bags of U.S. goods through customs as they return home from bargain hunting.

For online sellers the path is still clear - diversify and sell in multiple countries. Get inventory into Canada and Europe as U.S. exports rise and while the U.S. dollar is still historically low against these economies. Diversify your sales base across the U.S., Canada an Europe to pick up shoppers in their local countries as they may not be coming to you on their travel/shopping vacations in the coming quarters.

Shipwire put together a promotion and “5 Step Ecommerce Success” Guide to help merchants expand internationally.

Topics that this guide will cover:

• What is outsourced order fulfillment?
• Are you ready to outsource fulfillment?
• The power of multiple warehouse & a global warehouse network.
• Pros & cons of outsourcing fulfillment.
• Choosing an outsourced order fulfillment provider - Questions to Ask.
• The Setup Process.
• Packaging and labeling your products for order fulfillment success.
• Going International.

In a nutshell, outsourced order fulfillment is defined as storing your inventory in a third-party warehouse (3PL or third-party logistics) that you send your orders to. This outsourced fulfillment provider will take your order and pick-pack and ship the order to your customers in a way that you define.

To be sure there are nuances to this especially when it comes to optimizing your inventory placement to lower shipping costs and dealing with international fulfillment.

Shipping Optimization
Shipwire is thrilled to release the Merchant Package Service. This is a button you select in your account telling Shipwire to show and then ship the cheapest shipping method available. There are some advanced options that you can configure to review, hold orders, see other shipping options and do thing like apply insurance and tracking methods.

One button simple so you can rest assured you are getting maximum savings.

Shipwire’s UK launch is attracting the right type of attention

With the low dollar and high European demand, the UK warehouse launch is proving timely. The UK warehouse is now included with all accounts. Just click “send to warehouse” address. Check out the news page. We put together a UK warehouse resource page for merchants interested in expanding into Europe.

(Keep Reading there is a lot more)

Shipwire has been listening to your requests for more shipping options. Here is a list of shipping methods for the UK facility:

• UPS Saver
• UPS Expedited
• UPS Standard
• UPS Express
• Royal Mail First Class Large Letter
• Royal Mail Second Class Large Letter
• Royal Mail First Class Packet
• Royal Mail Second Class Packet
• Royal Mail Airmail
• Royal Mail Airsure
• Royal Mail International Signed For
• Parcelforce 24
• Parcelforce 48
• Parcelforce International Datapost
• Parcelforce Euro 48
• Parcelforce International Scheduled
• Parcelforce International Standard
• Parcelforce International Economy
• Pharos Hercules
• Eurotrux Ground

Shipwire is partner friendly

We’re happy to be working with some new App Alliance Partners. If your interested in partnering with us, please visit our ecommerce partner program page or contact us.

eBay ProStores, a hosted shopping cart, recently relaunched their website and it looks great. Shipwire is happy to now be ProStores order fulfillment and Shipping feature and promoted by ProStores. Our ProStores connection is a real time API connection that passes order information, product catalog (a real time saver if you’re just getting set up with Shipwire), tracking data, and inventory information via ProStores’ XML interface. Thanks to Mike and the whole team at ProStores for helping to make it happen. To enable the ProStores connection, simply install the ProStores Sell Tool and walk through the step-by-step wizard.

Shipwire for Zoovy success based ecommerce is available. If you have consistent sales but want to stop fretting about product placement on the website, transaction processing, and now order fulfillment - contact Zoovy sales. They have a success-based fee structure where they will take responsibility for your improved web sales for an agreed success-based amount. I’m sure they can say that better; but, they are great people to work with and very concerned with customer success and satisfaction.

Shipwire has also implemented support for the PayPal Shopping Cart. We already supported Buy Now buttons and the PayPal IPN (Instant Payment Notification).

And now some interesting features that didn’t fit in the subject line

• A huge feature is 1-click warehouse insurance. Now you can add appropriate levels of inventory insurance to your storage with Shipwire. No more 3rd-party insurance documents or billing hassles. Additional inventory insurance is additive to Shipwire’s standard insurance offerings. Expect to see a stand-alone blog article soon on the subtle but important distinctions between your own insurance and standard warehouse/carrier insurance.

• Shipwire recently opened a new warehouse in Reno, NV that is for “high item”/”pick and pack” orders, a.k.a lots of items per order. Pricing has been integrated into the Shipwire Online Pricing Tool (hint: Click customize under the “signup” button at the top).

• New freight features including Shipwire Merchant Freight Services are now offered out of many warehouses. Our new freight services make getting inventory in and out of the warehouses very easy. To see pricing, please sign up for a free trial or sign-in to your account.

• More Shipping Preferences. Now control your shipping types, outbound insurance and other options at the country or warehouse level in addition to generally across all warehouses.

If you want to see any other features please feel free to comment to this post.

Shipwire, a warehouse and shipping service geared for e-tailers, has expanded into Europe with a new fulfillment center in East Sussex, U.K.

The new facility, which joins Shipwire’s other warehouses in Los Angeles, Nevada, Chicago, Toronto and Vancouver, will enable small business owners to establish a local presence overseas.
Read more

With Shipwire, merchants can easily and quickly outsource the entire process of receiving, storage and shipment of goods. Shipwire allows all small and medium enterprises to access a nationwide network of warehouse. With a few clicks, merchants can manage inventory, their receptions and their shipments. An API is available to integrate it in your backoffice ShipWire.

In French. Translated Text.

• Your level of experience - Do you know how to get a product from point A to point B the fastest method, for the lowest price with the least margin of error? Do you want to spend your time in a warehouse, garage or storage unit packaging and shipping your products? Can you integrate your Web store or shopping cart with your warehouse or order fulfillment solution to automate your business?
• Future Sales - Looking forward at your sales pipeline will your growing success mean adding more warehouse space or moving to a larger garage, overwhelming your current warehouse staffing, taking your children out of school so they can do order fulfillment over the holidays, or transitioning your valuable sales and marketing time into packing and shipping time. If future sales look good, outsourcing your order fulfillment lays the infrastructure for your business growth.
• Order Volume - Maybe your future sales pipeline is normal; but, you are just having trouble keeping up. This is a good time to start looking at order fulfillment which can scale better with your business growth.
• Shipping errors - One of the laws of do-it-yourself order fulfillment is that “as shipping volume goes up, error rates go up”. Employees and family get stressed, people are working late, WMS (warehouse management solutions) designed for lower volume start to break down…generally, mistakes happen more often. Mistakes cost your business big: Angry customers, expensive returns shipping, restocking times, reshipping costs and general hassles. A good rule of thumb is that each error cost you 3-4 times whatever your per order pick-pack-ship cost; and that’s if you keep the customer.
• Product Type - Not all products are right for most order fulfillment. If your shipping handmade items that you make on demand, items that need customization like monogramming or wedding invitations, individual (1-off) items like closeouts and antiques or some perishables order fulfillment will likely not work for you. Outsourced order fulfillment is best for non-perishable items that you buy by the lot, pallet or container and sell by the hundreds. Easily repeatable items like toys, electronics and apparel.
• End Buyer- Who you are selling to will make a big difference in what your order fulfillment needs are. Consumer shipments verse wholesale, distributor, retailers (big box retailers). Also consider where your customers are located around the world (see below regarding the power of multiple warehouses).
• Inventory Complexity - A Shop Keeping Unit (SKU) is an individual type of product. If you sell a black t-shirt in S, M & L that is 3 SKU’s. If you sell the same shirt in 1, 2 & 3 packs with all sizes that is now 9 SKU’s. The general rule is that the more SKU’s your carrying the more complex (and expensive) your order fulfillment can get. The reason for this is that many warehouses will put individual items in bins in a forward pick-pack area to make it easy to pull orders. A good general rule of thumb if you have a lot of SKU’s is look to outsource the fulfillment for the high-turnover (”best sellers”) first.
• Receiving Needs - Receiving is what the warehouse does when you send it your product in bulk, freight or by the container. You tell the warehouse what is arriving via an Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) and packing list - this tells the warehouse the products are, characteristics and number of each SKU that is arriving. To ensure that your products are promptly and accurately received make sure that items are labeled with the appropriate SKU’s (or make advance plans with the warehouse for labeling upon receipt); ensure your manufacturer or shipper has an accurate packing list and tell the warehouse what to expect via an accurate ASN. Whenever possible give the warehouse the tracking information for your inbound inventory so that they can look up when to expect it; the larger the receiving the more important these items are. If you buy wholesale lots and don’t know what your receiving make sure your fulfillment solution can handle a “blind receiving” where they tell you what you got based on a review of inventory according to the packing list.
• Customer Support - Customers expect superb CRM (Customer Relationship Management/Messaging) of order status, shipping status and tracking numbers. Customers expect the right order shipped at the time that they expected. They want to be able to return items they find unsatisfactory. When it comes to supporting international customers all those rule apply and you need to understand the tax and customs consequences of how you ship. Outsourcing can give you all this without major investments.
• Automation & Order Status Notifications- The key to scalability and limiting errors is to take human hands out of your order processes as much as possible. This is hard for the actual packaging and shipping; however, this is eminently achievable hen it comes to sending order to the warehouse and getting ship confirmation and tracking numbers back. See our Compatible Ecommerce Carts page for a list of solutions automated with Shipwire.
• Tax considerations - Most countries that you may want to import inventory into will require you to put your local tax ID on inbound imports. This is usually quite easy to get. See our UK Warehouse Guide for an example of where to get this Tax ID in the UK or here to get a US Import Tax ID.
• International Shipping - We are going to cover this a lot more below. Successfully shipping international orders is a skill; doing it cost effectively is a process that requires you to think like a fortune 500 business. Move inventory in bulk (by freight) into foreign markets like Canada and the UK. Once you have inventory you can ship local ground parcel services with 1-2 day delivery times, just like merchants in that country. Shipwire can help you do this.
• Retail Compliance - Retailers like Target®, Walmart®, Sears®, and chains like The Men’s Warehouse® require suppliers to offer EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) between your order fulfillment solution and their supplier software. EDI/Retail Compliance gets very complex and can be expensive to integrate. It is very common for an entrepreneur to get a 40-60 page document from a retailer that wants to sell your product. Consider whether you want to absorb the cost of compliance or partner with a company that does this.
• “Single Neck to Choke” - If your tired of trying to get claims out of the parcel carriers, handling employee staffing issues, wondering who erroneously shipped a 50 lb. order to a customer by next day air costing you hundreds of dollars; you may be ready to outsource your order fulfillment and push the reliability for shipping perfection to the provider. We call it the “Single neck to choke” when something goes wrong.

Fast and accurate order fulfillment is a requirement to compete in today’s domestic and international ecommerce. If you have concerns or can see the writing on the wall that you are not going to scale - partner with an expert like Shipwire and negotiate a cost that works for your business. Failing to be an expert in order fulfillment means that you will lose sales and anger customers. This is especially true of rapidly growing ecommerce businesses.

What could be better? Going back this week for a start…

Shipwire is going to be attending and exhibiting at eBay Live this Thursday, Friday and Saturday within the GoPesa.org pavilion at eBay live. We are a partner of GoPesa.org and ecmta.org (Ecommerce Merchant Trade Association) and we’re looking forward to working with them at this event. If you are in town and going to the show, please come by and visit us at the GoPesa’s huge pavilion.

We look forward to seeing you at the show or at one of the networking socials. One satellite event that I wanted to point out is the Alibaba e-business Champions Award Night. A few of our customers also made submissions to this Award describing how Shipwire had made them a more competitive e-business. View submissions.

Outsourcing Order Fulfillment to a third-party should result in savings of time, headaches, order fulfillment costs and… shipping costs. Many order fulfillment providers will tout location as key to shipping price savings; and, they are right. However, don’t settle for one (1) good location; you need multiple locations that are geographically close to major population centers (read “your buyers”).

If you ship 25% of your orders to the West Coast of the U.S.A, 25% to the East Coast of the U.S.A., 25% to Canada and 25% to Europe; odds are approximately 80% of your shipments will will be going to major population centers where buyers are (LA, Chicago, New York, Toronto, London, Paris, etc). If your current warehouse is in Portland, then a warehouse in LA or Chicago will improve your delivery times to the East or West Coast compared to your Portland facility; however, it doesn’t make any sense to locate all your inventory in one of those locations. You outsourced and optimized for 25% of your orders if your lucky.

A better solution would be to spread your inventory out into 5-6 warehouses in LA, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the UK or mainland Europe. Locate inventory globally using bulk freight shipments and local warehouse storage close to major population centers, as orders flow in through your online store, eBay or your other sales channels internationally, ship them out from the warehouse closest to the end-buyer. This results in lower parcel delivery costs, faster delivery times and true shipping cost savings. This is a play straight out of the game book of the top online retailers.

This is an incredibly important topic; so, we are going to focus on it a bit closer.

Discovering real savings in your storage and shipping supply chain has been the same since the time of Alexander the Great – use the cheapest mode of transport for the longest distance, and discover ways to leverage “economies of scale”.

When you move product in bulk (large quantity versus individual parcel), you get the greatest economies of scale and the lowest cost. When product inventory is moved in bulk from consolidation points (manufacturer and freight forwarding short-term storage), to distribution points (warehouses) it can be moved very cost effectively on a per-item basis. The most expensive part of retail fulfillment is the last leg of the products journey – from your warehouse to the end-buyer – that is typically a parcel shipment with a major carrier rather than freight.

Let’s look at a very simple example, a 10-lb. parcel shipment from a New York City warehouse to a residence in Los Angeles. If your warehouse is in New York, your cost for a normal ground shipment to the residence in LA would be approximately $12.66 (Feb ‘08 pricing, ground, with residence fee and fuel surcharges). If you need to get it there via next-day air it would be approximately $81.00. If you put some of your inventory in a warehouse in Los Angeles, your cost for that same package would be $8.39 (ground, with residence fee and fuel surcharges). If you had to get the product to the customer the next day, it would be the same $8.39 fee.

What is the lesson? Your carrier pricing is a factor of distance. If you strategically place inventory in multiple locations, you can decrease delivery time and costs. Granted, in this example we saved a little over $4.00. However, if you’re doing 100 shipments a week you would be saving over $1,500 monthly just on shipping. You just saved roughly one-third of your shipping costs while increasing your service levels. This is a true cost savings…this is the power of multiple warehouses strategically located.

The objection we typically hear is, “I would have to pay to move my inventory to my second warehouse.” Bulk freight shipping, those 18-wheelers you always see on the interstate, is cheap compared to the outbound piecemeal parcel shipping of FedEx or UPS. An 18-wheeler filled with 10,000 stuffed animals will cost less than $5,000 to ship from NYC to LA, that’s $0.50 a stuffed animal, in return for $3.00, $5.00, or more in savings for each stuffed animal you would ship individually – not to mention your buyers get faster delivery times.

Therefore, the rule is to strategically place inventory closer to the end-buyer, and always try to shorten the last leg of the parcel delivery by the carriers. In industry jargon, this is sometimes known as “forward warehousing”; think of it as real savings. Alexander the Great actually invented the concept; he called it a “forward supply depot.”

Shipwire offers warehouses in Los Angeles, Reno, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the UK.

Shipwire, announced its expansion into Europe with a new UK warehouse and packing fulfillment facility located outside London in East Sussex, England. Shipwire is a full-service, on-demand global warehouse and shipping service that takes care of all the hassles of storage and shipping for e-tailers. With Shipwire, online merchants can cut shipping times to Europe by up to 75 percent, according to the company.Read the Article

Shipwire, which sells international e-commerce order fulfillment solutions and services, is expanding to allow U.S.-based small online businesses to execute orders from European customers. The company announced its new UK-based warehouse and pick-pack fulfillment facility June 9. Read the Article

Shipwire has announced that it has expanded its operations in Europe by opening a new site in Britain.

The US-based international e-commerce order fulfillment provider claims that the move will enable it to provide access for web retailers to services aimed at meeting growing demand from European consumers.

Sluggish US dollar performance has fueled exports and Shipwire now plans to make it easier for internet retailers to expand into Europe. Read More

Shipwire, a company specializing in international ecommerce solutions, has expanded into Europe with a new UK warehouse and pick pack fulfillment facility located outside London in East Sussex, England. Read Article

E-commerce Order Fulfillment Services Leader Launches Full-Service European Shipping Solution That Reduces Shipping Costs, Delivery Times and Barriers to Entry for Small Businesses Selling Overseas. Shipwire offers free trial for European warehouse.

Sunnyvale, CA, June 9, 2008 – Shipwire, Inc., a leader in international ecommerce order fulfillment, today announced its expansion into Europe with a new UK warehouse and pick pack fulfillment facility located outside London in East Sussex, England. Web retailers can now turn to Shipwire to take advantage of the export-friendly U.S. dollar, and growing demand from European consumers. Shipwire is a full-service, on-demand global warehouse and shipping service that takes care of all the hassles of storage and shipping for e-tailers. With Shipwire, retailers enjoy an easy, affordable way to establish a local presence overseas, while dramatically reducing shipping costs and cutting shipping times to Europe by up to 75 percent.

“Before Shipwire, smaller merchants were at a huge disadvantage; they simply didn’t have the time, know-how or volume to compete internationally with large manufacturers and distributors,” said Damon Schechter, founder and CEO of Shipwire and best-selling author of Delivering the Goods: The Art of Managing Your Supply Chain (Wiley, 2002). “Shipwire gives small businesses the storage and shipping infrastructure of a leading Fortune 500 business, helping them drastically reduce their shipping costs and times by leveraging the power of multiple warehouses. With Shipwire, as merchants grow they can add U.S., Canadian and European warehouses without long-term commitments, and pay only for what they use.”

Shipwire takes the hassle out of the entire order fulfillment and logistics process, so that e-tailers can focus on growing their business. Shipwire offers a free trial of its services. Usage based plans start at just $29/month for 16 cubic feet of storage, that can be split up between Shipwire locations in Los Angeles, Nevada Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, and now the warehouse in London, UK. With a Shipwire account, merchants can outsource receiving, inventory, pick pack, packaging, shipping, insurance, returns, and the logistics of freight, customs and VAT, to drastically simplify international order fulfillment. Shipwire automatically connects with and adds order fulfillment and international shipping to eBay®, Yahoo!® Stores, PayPal®, Google® Checkout®, Zen Cart®, NetSuite®, Intuit® Quickbooks® and popular shopping cart and inventory management systems.

An On-Demand, Global Warehouse Network Built for Small Businesses

By storing products closer to their end customers, e-tailers using Shipwire can significantly reduce shipping costs and times, and quickly respond to spikes in seasonal demand. For example, per-item economy shipments to Europe can take over two months, and airmail is prohibitively expensive. Not only does paperwork have to be completed by the e-tailer for each shipment, but buyers often reject orders when confronted with unexpected VAT tax bills, resulting in expensive international returns. By storing products at Shipwire’s new UK warehouse near London, most European ground shipments can be delivered in just 2-3 days, with little or no paperwork, and returns can be quickly and automatically restocked by Shipwire.

Anne Li, owner of wind and renewable energy company AriSolarWind.com, said, “my business has been growing rapidly, and Shipwire has been invaluable in scaling my business. Recently, demand in Europe for our wind-turbines has skyrocketed, so I turned to Shipwire for help. Working with them is so much easier and less expensive than doing my own order fulfillment. Our products are heavy and fragile, so freighting inventory to Europe, and then shipping it ground, will cut delivery times from weeks to days, and save my buyers and my business a lot of money.”

Using Shipwire, Li is able to manage her inventory across five warehouses, in three countries, on two continents, through one online interface, and pay just one bill. As shipping and carrier rates continue to increase, small businesses are turning to Shipwire to leverage the same cost and global warehousing advantages that were previously only available to large enterprises.

Shipwire Offers Complimentary UK Warehousing and Free Trial

To kick-off the opening of its UK facility, and help merchants schedule container shipments for the 2008 holiday season, Shipwire is offering special deals for retailers who schedule a shipment to the UK warehouse by September 1, 2008. New customers will receive a free month of storage space, valued at up to $250 per month.

For more information, or to sign up for a fully featured free trial of any Shipwire warehouse, please visit: http://www.shipwire.com/trial. No credit card is needed.

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About Shipwire (http://www.shipwire.com)
Shipwire provides businesses with ecommerce order fulfillment services, powered by a global warehouse network and the Store-Sell-Ship™ platform. Shipwire eliminates the hassle of storage and shipping so merchants can focus on growth. With warehouses in Los Angeles, Nevada, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the UK, Shipwire allows merchants to drastically reduce shipping costs by locating inventory closer to buyers. Usage-based plans start at just $29/month and enable merchants to locate inventory in all warehouses with no contract commitments. Shipwire is the only 3PL shipping solution that instantly integrates and adds order fulfillment and shipping for shopping carts and inventory management systems. Shipwire is developer and partner friendly, learn more about our ecommerce developer partner program. For a free trial or more information, contact 1-888-SHIPWIRE or visit http://www.shipwire.com/trial.

Contact: Press (at) shipwire (dot) com

A lot of the Stoneedge power users were very active at this show and their concerns were very focused on International growth and reducing shipping costs. The bulk of the Sunday show activities was dedicated to warehouse, inventory management and order fulfillment. Shipwire was asked to speak on Sunday morning about order fulfillment. At that session the participants asked a lot of questions about how Shipwire can help them fulfill orders coming from Canada, the UK and Europe. The general assessment from participants was that the US dollar exchange rate was making their products much more export friendly; however, fulfilling the demand was a big hassle. The Shipwire warehouse solution in Canada and our new warehouse in the UK was very well received. Many of the Stoneedge e-tailers were very interested in how the Shipwire global warehouse network could help them move inventory closer to end-users and overcome hassles such as customs, VAT tax and obviously reduce parcel shipping costs internationally.

We’ll be blogging more from Internet Retailer over the next week. Monday morning looks like a very good series of panels and sessions focused on growing sales with SEO, Internet, e-mail and affiliate marketing. It will be interesting to learn what Shipwire should be doing differently, especially getting affiliates and partners to help us propel forward the Shipwire Order Fulfillment Partner Program.

Shipwire, which has warehouses on the East and West Coasts as well as in Canada, aims to remove the hassle of shipping and storing inventory by taking on those tasks for manufacturers and retailers. Read the Article.

• StoneEdge User Conference, June 7-8 in Chicago
• Internet Retailer 2008, June 9-12th in Chicago
• PayPal Developer Conference 2008, June 16-18th in Chicago
• eBay Live 2008, June 19-21st in Chicago (in the EMTCA/GoPesa pavillion)

It’s not going to be all work though; as we’ll be attending the GoPesa & Alibaba shindig on Thursday night with our Partners. If you are going to eBay Live definitely RSVP (or contact us) so that we can raise a cocktail together. Hope to see you in Chicago!

Get ready to grow your business this holiday season.

With Shipwire as your partner for storage and shipping you can grow your sales in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Shipwire will be will you every step of the way. We will do more than advise; we will provide you with the tools, expertise and automation to grow your business while saving you from the hassles of storage and shipping.

Hussain Z. formed Raza Trade, LLC in January, 2007, while preparing for his own wedding. He was looking for wedding linens and was surprised to find very few online options available for US based customers. He ended up ordering directly from China, but the order came in two weeks too late for his wedding, so he decided to sell the linens online. What started with a mere $500 in inventory has grown to over $40k in bi-monthly orders.

Hussain works full time at Smith Barney, so it was important to him that his business grow with as little time commitment as possible. He decided to run his business virtually by outsourcing his call center, SEO/website management and, most importantly, his shipping and warehousing with Shipwire.

Warehousing in Manhattan, where Raza Trade, LLC is headquartered, is cost-prohibitive. With Shipwire, Hussain is able to save on storage costs by tapping into an international network of distributed warehouses. Shipwire also takes care of all customer shipping, returns and tracking, enabling Hussain to distribute 40 boxes of shipments in just 6 minutes online. This lets Raza Trade, LLC to have a unique pricing advantage against their competitors, who have to buy maintain traditional warehouses and a large number of staff.

Raza Trade, LLC’s unique outsourced shipping strategy enables it to operate a just-in-time supply model, where 95% of all incoming shipments are sold to ship within days of arrival to Shipwire’s warehouses. Raza Trade, LLC has since experienced rapid growth, from $10K (2006), to $80K (2007), to $150K (2008, projected) without Hussain having to hire employees, field calls or even touch a single package.

Raza Trade, LLC is highly committed to social responsibility. The company has a stringent review process where it checks if their Chinese manufacturers have accurately priced their invoices (many manufacturers frequently under report their prices to evade tariffs). Raza Trade, LLC also gives discounts to the many churches and universities it services.

ThoughtFish Media

Andrew S. founded ThoughtFish Media while running his own tile company. At the time, he was managing a large warehouse with many employees, while maintaining a full-time job at Kodak. He wanted to continue to grow his business as an entrepreneur without sacrificing time with his six adopted children and full-time job commitment, so he sold the tile company and formed a tile software company instead online.

Since starting in 2002, ThoughtFish Media has emerged as the industry leader for tile, bead and other craft art design software, with over 26,000 customers in 32 countries. Their users have grown to become passionate fans and the company will host its first worldwide user group meeting in North Carolina later this year. All is sold from their online store or through major online e-tail affiliates, like Tiger Direct.

Recently, ThoughtFish Media has set its sights on international expansion. However, they found that only 50% of their shipments to Canada, for example, would be completed, due to difficulties with carriers, customer returns and paperwork. The other problem was that with every new product launch, the company could not send the new products fast enough to meet overseas demand (customers had to wait two weeks or more).

ThoughtFish Media decided to turn to Shipwire to outsource all of their shipping and warehousing needs. Shipwire is an international network of on-demand shipping warehouses. With Shipwire, Andrew was able to stock his products locally in Canada and the UK, so that when customers ordered their product, they would get it faster (in just a couple days) and cheaper (since they were shipping locally). Shipwire also took care of all order processing, tracking and returns, enabling Andrew to focus on his full-time career and family.

ThoughtFish Media recently used Alibaba to find a manufacturer to supply materials for their newest product. The company said that before Alibaba, finding a manufacturer for such an obscure part overseas would have taken months of travel and research.

ThoughtFish Media continues its growth as a the leader in its industry, thanks to its unique outsourced model for growth. The company continues to be one of the only software manufacturers to support the arts and crafts community by constantly developing new and innovative products.

Keetsa

Online retailer Keetsa introduced a revolutionary, eco-friendly memory foam mattress, and in keeping with the company’s environmental and cost-saving commitment, developed a unique packaging solution that allowed the mattresses to be boxed for easy shipping to buyers, reducing transport costs and overall carbon emissions.

Keetsa’s patented packaging is designed so that mattresses can be delivered compactly through the mail. Despite that, traditional warehouses demanded long-term contracts, upfront fees, and a credit check that’s hard for a new business to pass.

The costs of owning their own warehouse would have forced Keetsa to raise retail prices and spend time managing the warehouse - time the company needed to spend on its core business. Instead of bowing to the demands of warehouses, Keetsa entrusted Shipwire with the shipping and fulfillment. Using Shipwire’s plug-and-play online store order fulfillment solution eliminated the hassle of storage and shipping. Now the company can manage inventory and delivery in a way that is convenient and affordable while gaining a competitive business advantage.

It takes an hour to ship a mattress from the flagship retail store in San Francisco, but mere minutes to log into Shipwire and schedule a mattress for shipping—a timesavings of 80 percent. Using Shipwire’s East and West Coast warehouses helped move inventory closer to customers, keeping delivery costs low. Less travel also means less fuel, lowering the carbon footprint of Keetsa’s mattresses by 400%.

Keetsa claims its online-focus is the key to its rapid growth. 95% of all sales originate from online ads, through direct orders on Keetsa.com or through viral YouTube videos of customer reviews. The company was recently featured on HGTV after the show’s producers found them online. Since launching nine months ago, the company’s sales have grown 2000%, fueled by online publicity and sales. They currently plan on growing their number of stores from 2 to 6 stores this year.

Is your e-tail business growing and managing your own warehouse and fulfillment is draining your resources? Do you want to buy inventory from overseas, but you can’t confidently navigate the import process yourself? Maybe you simply want discounted shipping rates and don’t want to pick-and-pack product? Shipwire… can help you by cutting costs with its storage and delivery service that integrates with your inventory and payment processing. Read the Article

General Shipwire focused Questions

• What is Shipwire?
• Shipwire is an Interesting idea, where did it come from?
• What type of merchants is Shipwire a good fit for?
• How does Shipwire integrate into a merchant’s existing shopping cart?
• What carts does it integrate with?
• What are the charges and set up fees for a merchant to use Shipwire?
• Where are the Shipwire warehouses?
• Why do you have so many warehouses? Most order fulfillment companies have 1.
• Give us an example of how Shipwire can reduce shipping fees for a merchant.
• How can a merchant track shipments to its customers using Shipwire?
• How does a Shipwire powered merchant handle returns?
• Does a merchant have to send you all their inventory, or just what they want you to fulfill?
• How do merchants get inventory to Shipwire?
• If a merchant wants to go into Canada or the UK, how can Shipwire help?
• Does Shipwire help with B2B/wholesale/retail compliance in addition to B2C?

General Industry Questions (not just about Shipwire)

• What is “order fulfillment”?
• What are some pit-falls to watch out for when outsourcing order fulfillment?
• Why would an Internet retailer/merchant use an order fulfillment company?
• Why should merchants choose Shipwire for their fulfillment needs?
• What is the difference between B2C and B2B order fulfillment?
• How important is location for order fulfillment?
• What should a merchant ask when investigating an order fulfillment provider?
• How can order fulfillment outsourcing save a merchant shipping costs?
• How does an order fulfillment company work with a retailer?
• What is pick and pack verse lick ‘n stick™?
• Where do people go to get order fulfillment pricing? Internationally?
• What shipping options do merchants use in Canada? UK?
• How is international order fulfillment different from consolidating shipments?
• When a merchant ships internationally what do they need to watch out for?
• Do merchants need to do tax different or register their business when they move inventory internationally?
• What is retail compliance and how does EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) factor in?

Industry Trend Questions

• Why are U.S. merchants experiencing a surge in International shipping requests/orders?
• What impact has the dollar had on international shipping?
• PayPal made cross-border monetary transfer easy, why is shipping not as easy?
• How can merchants enter the U.S., Canadian or European market, if they are not from that country?
• What are some pitfalls for sellers/retailers that ship goods internationally to Canada, UK or Europe?

• With fuel prices increasing, what do you recommend to merchants to keep shipping costs low?
• Why do you recommend storing inventory in multiple warehouses?
• the parcel carriers (UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS) seem to be raising rates annually, is there anything a merchant can do about that?

• Is it possible for a small merchant to have the supply chain efficiency of a Walmart® or Costco®?
• What does a Fortune 500 company do for warehousing and shipping?
• Why would a business want East and West Coast warehouses?
• For Importers, how do you recommend they set up their inventory supply chain?

• Drop ship is a common term now, what is it?
• What are some of the pros and cons of drop ship?
• Do drop ship distributors ship International?
• What happens to retailers if a drop shipper runs out of product?
• Is the margin small for drop shippers?
• How does a merchant move from Drop Ship to being a “true” retailer? How hard is it?
• How can Shipwire help a struggling drop shipper?

• What outsourced business automation tools should a merchant look into?
• For merchants that are reluctant to outsource, what would you tell them?
• What benefits can a merchant that outsources order fulfillment expect?
• Should merchants be careful outsourcing order fulfillment to a warehouse that is also a retailer?

• Do you have some type of guide for merchants to get ready f