Australian SME’s have traditionally faced expensive shipping prices, making it tough for them to compete effectively against larger companies when it came to shipping locally and exporting internationally.
Hurdles businesses face when shipping include negotiating taxes, customs, inconvenient post office visits, all of this made even more difficult when having to monitor sales and organise shipping over multiple online platforms.
Mark Helvadjian saw this gap in the market and set about creating ShippingEasy, a multi channel platform that aims to take the difficulty out of shipping domestically and internationally.
Through previous online ventures, Helvadjian had noticed how difficult expensive shipping prices made it for businesses to compete, especially when larger companies were able to offer cheap or free shipping.
“ShippingEasy came about when I was looking to sell some products online and I discovered it was a difficult process,” Helvadjian told Dynamic Business.
“I saw that there was a huge demand from consumers for low prices or even free shipping. SME’s historically haven’t had high enough volumes to get high enough discounts from carriers to provide cheap shipping,” he added.
Helvadjian, who has a background in web design and online product management, said he saw the potential in the idea and put all of his efforts into making it a reality.
“I decided it was an idea good enough to sell the house and throw all the money into building ShippingEasy,” he said.
“Technology offers amazing opportunities, but making something easy isn’t easy itself. A lot of hard work goes into making sure there’s an easy and smooth process,” he added.
By partnering with major couriers such as FedEx, Helvadjian was able to secure discounted shipping prices, giving SME’s the ability to compete with larger companies.
Helvadjian said offering a streamlined place where companies can view all of their orders at once, as well as simplifying customs requirements and discounting prices helps to level the playing field for exporters.
“In an essence we’re trying to level the playing field with the big boys that are able to offer free shipping or cheap shipping because they have the bulk orders and lower prices.”
“Cross-border sales offers amazing opportunities for businesses, but historically it has been extremely challenging to negotiate international shipping. There is a myriad of customs forms that need to be put together and an understanding of duties and taxes which ShippingEasy helps to negotiate,” he added.
Helvadjian said he’s constantly improving the structure and framework of ShippingEasy, to keep with the simple mission statement: “make sending stuff easy.”
