What started as a website comparing shipping prices has evolved into a parcel forwarding service, allowing Australian businesses the opportunity to tap lucrative foreign markets.
“We want to be the WebJet of the shipping world,” said Jack Fitzgerald, the 25-year-old director and co-founder of Ship2Anywhere.
The online start-up, which provides a parcel forwarding service for individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses, is giving Australian companies the chance to expand overseas.
Both Fitzgerald and Michael Teasdale, co-founder and business partner, completed business degrees at university.
Fitzgerald’s studies in logistics and Teasdale’s work with a leading transport company gave them a key insight into the industry, allowing them to create a service they thought Australia lacked.
“On researching the Australian logistics industry, we found nobody was really doing anything online, or nobody was doing it properly at that time,” Fitzgerald said.
The step from price comparing to offering parcel forwarding was then a simple case of evolving to fulfil customer demand.
“Lots of people wanted to ship from Australia to the States to try and expand their services and break into bigger markets,” Fitzgerald said.
Unlike other “mum-and-pop-type businesses that operate out of a garage and have a friend in America that picks up the goods at their house”, Fitzgerald believes Ship2Anywhere’s USA Order Fulfilment Service is giving small Australian businesses real opportunities.
“With the warehouse over there, we now offer fulfilment to help Australian businesses break out and distribute their goods domestically in America,” he said.
Businesses can send their products to the company’s American warehouse, where they will be securely stored.
When American customers then place orders for these goods online, their shipping costs will be much cheaper, as the goods will be domestic rather than international orders.
“We’ve invested a lot in technology, automated as much as we can, and created a really cool dashboard for the customers to manage and ship all their parcels,” Fitzgerald said.
He believes Ship2Anywhere is also making it easier and quicker for Australian businesses to operate compared to using the bigger couriers.
“We provide access to those established brands but through different services. By operating online, it makes it simpler and easier for businesses to get quotes and make bookings,” he said.
In addition, establishing the company’s base here means Aussie businesses can operate during business hours in their own time zone.
“All the big players in the industry are US-based, owned, and operated. Because we’re Australian owned and operated, we can really tailor [our business] to the Australian market.
“Giving customers the opportunity to pick up the phone and talk to us rather than sending an email and waiting 24 hours for a response really helps on the customer service side of things,” Fitzgerald said.
Although Ship2Anywhere isn’t targeting any industry in particular, Fitzgerald says the fashion industry definitely stands out as one of its most frequent customers.
With the help of their mentor Peter Rocke, past chair of the Australian Trucking Association, Fitzgerald and Teasdale are already looking at conquering more than just the United States.
“Without a doubt, over the next two years we’re looking to expand into multiple countries and Europe is definitely up the top of our list,” Fitzgerald said.
Their ultimate goal, he says, is to become a recognised brand name in the shipping industry.
“We want to be the go-to courier site worldwide.”
