For many years, the conventional wisdom in retail shipping has been to rely on in-house assets or a single large carrier, such as FedEx or UPS, to complete deliveries.
But not any longer. Retailers are beginning to adopt a multicarrier strategy. Sellers can avoid general rate increases by major providers by utilizing carrier and 3PL networks while retaining the ability to add and remove capacity at will.
The model has spawned a slew of shipping orchestration platforms designed to bring those disparate providers together in a single technology stack, such as Seattle-based Shipium, which announced a partnership with last-mile parcel delivery service Better Trucks on Thursday to expand the firm’s delivery network to its e-commerce shipping customers.
Better Trucks’ regional networks of transportation and logistics assets, which specialize in next-day and two-day deliveries, are now available to Shipium sellers. Its facilities are primarily in the Midwest and Southeast of the United States, with a few warehouses in the Northeast and Texas.
In addition, the last-mile provider has integrations with several other e-commerce shipping platforms, including EasyPost, ShipStation, and Shippo, as well as a partnership with Fillogic, which orchestrates fulfillment from retail and mall locations.
“There is no doubt that faster shipping options at a lower cost are now central to how modern operators plan out their network,” said Shipium CEO Jason Murray. “To make that strategy a reality, they need modern carriers like Better Trucks.”
Shipium, which Murray and Chief Technology Officer Mac Brown cofounded in 2019, has done this before.
Following a $27.5 million venture-backed Series A round in April — the largest ever for a supply chain software startup — Murray and Brown set about expanding the platform’s carrier options, which include FedEx, UPS, DHL, and the US Postal Service.
The shipping orchestration platform has now signed five partnerships since the beginning of the year, according to an announcement made on Thursday, February 8th.
It integrated with SmartKargo’s air cargo e-commerce solution earlier this month, and has since signed agreements to integrate its software with multimodal shipper Maergo and last-mile logistics provider Veho. It announced a deal at the end of the month to share its logistics technology with American Eagle Outfitters’ logistics arm, Quiet Platforms.
Shipium has been able to expand its customers’ shipping networks as a result of these integrations and partnerships. Within the first month of using the service, sellers go from using one national carrier to a mix of six different carriers, according to the firm.
“Consumer delivery expectations are unwavering,” said Andy Whiting, co-founder and CEO of Better Trucks. “However, all too often, their shipping technology fails them. To improve time-to-value and diversify carriers, they require a modern solution like Shipium.”
