4 questions to ask before choosing a shipping platform

Shipping challenges tend to sneak up on growing brands. What starts as a simple workflow quickly becomes a tangle of volume spikes, carrier complexity, and international expansion.

The good news? These challenges aren’t new—and they’re solvable with the right infrastructure in place.

Take it from brands that scaled through Shippo: with 200M+ shipments annually, here are four things they consistently needed their shipping platform to do.

1. Can my shipping platform handle peak season without breaking?

Shipping delays during peak season aren’t just frustrating—they’re expensive. A platform that can scale under pressure protects your bottom line and your customer experience.

In December 2024 alone, Shippo merchants experienced volume spikes nearly 2× their February baseline, and the platform held steady throughout.¹

The takeaway: Your shipping platform should perform reliably when demand surges—not slow you down.

2. Will my shipping platform grow with my business?

When you're growing fast, adding complexity is easy. The real advantage is scaling without operational sprawl—and that starts with the right shipping infrastructure.

With Shippo, brands can integrate directly or plug into their existing ecommerce or logistics systems—like Shopify, Fishbowl, ShipBob, and more. Whether you're building something custom or leaning on familiar tools, you won’t need to rip and replace as you scale. You simply unlock more capabilities: automation, fulfillment optimization, better carrier pricing, and built-in fallback options when a carrier experiences delays or disruptions.

The takeaway: Choose a platform that integrates easily with your current systems—and scales with your business.

Still deciding whether to build or buy?
See our Build vs. Buy Guide: Which shipping platform is best for your business? to compare development timelines, compliance burdens, and cost trade-offs.

3. Will my shipping platform make multi-carrier shipping easier—or harder?

Supporting more carriers is a smart way to optimize cost, but without the right shipping platform, it often creates operational bottlenecks and engineering drain.

Here’s what scaling brands are up against when going it alone:

• 12–16 weeks per carrier integration
  
  
• $400,000+ in annual staffing costs
  
  
• Constant updates and compliance maintenance—even mid-project

Shippo gives you access to 40+ pre-negotiated carrier rates and integrations through one platform. We handle the certifications, uptime, and SLA compliance—so your team can focus on what matters most.

The takeaway: One integration. Dozens of carriers. Zero babysitting.

4. Will my shipping platform support international growth when I’m ready?

Entering new markets shouldn’t mean reinventing your shipping operations. Look for a platform that’s already built to support global scale.

In the past year, merchants used Shippo to create shipments from over 115 countries—delivering to nearly every country on earth, from Albania to Zimbabwe. In the U.S., they created labels in over 50,000 ZIP codes—practically the entire postal map. And while 93% of labels are domestic, Shippo still moves millions of cross-border shipments monthly, with strong lanes like U.S.–Canada and France–France.¹

The takeaway: When you’re ready to grow global, we’re already there.

Choose a platform that scales with you, not one you’ll outgrow

If operational efficiency and cost savings are priorities for your next stage of growth, your shipping platform should be an enabler—not an obstacle. Shippo gives you the infrastructure to simplify, scale, and save—without the overhead of building from scratch.

Ready to explore how Shippo can support your next stage?
Talk to an expert

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¹ Based on Shippo internal data, June 2024 – May 2025