Shippo Provides Exclusive Access to USPS’ ePostage Program

At Shippo our goal is to help businesses succeed through shipping. We are accelerating this mission by providing a new, direct method to access the U.S. Postal Service through their ePostage program.

What is the USPS® ePostage Program?

The United States Postal Service does not offer an open, public API for purchasing USPS® shipping labels. Historically, they’ve worked with three technology partners, selected in 1999, to provide public access to USPS®. Through the new USPS® ePostage program, Shippo has become the first company in 18 years to enable any business to access USPS® shipping services online.

ePostage is a new program developed by the USPS® to accommodate the growth of ecommerce. While Amazon and Etsy have been using ePostage for their own USPS® integrations, we’re excited to be the first and only company to make ePostage available to any business, to provide the same functionality and scale previously only available to those who were able to make a large investment into building their own shipping infrastructure.

Why Shippo and ePostage?

We worked with the United States Postal Service to make ePostage available public because we recognize that shipping was no longer just a “back-room operation.” Shipping is a competitive advantage, tying together the online and offline experience. However, businesses of all sizes are still finding it difficult to successfully manage their shipping operations, citing the process to be time-consuming, expensive, and often confusing.

Shippo provides a straightforward integration to the USPS®, and a global network of carriers, in one integration. Our shipping API and dashboard provides a full lifecycle solution for businesses at any stage. Now through ePostage, Shippo can guarantee businesses even better uptime, stability, speed, and scalability to the U.S. Postal Service. We’ve helped over 10,000 businesses around the world, ranging from small-business owners to enterprise platforms.

Leverage shipping for success

Successful ecommerce businesses are owning the shipping experience and the technology behind it. Here are how some market leaders leverage shipping in their operations and use ePostage as a competitive advantage.

Amazon
Amazon invested heavily in providing essentially free, fast, and reliable shipping sometimes even at a loss, earning fiercely loyal Prime members who solely purchase through Amazon. Their early and continuous investment in shipping has changed the expectation of ecommerce shipping, setting the bar for all online shopping. Because Amazon and USPS® share a close partnership, Amazon has integrated ePostage exclusively for their merchants to use.

Etsy
Etsy became one of the most popular marketplaces for independent makers by providing their sellers easy access to the USPS for reliable and affordable shipping. They built shipping into the Etsy platform as part of the seller experience, and integrated with the U.S. Postal Service directly through ePostage. By removing shipping challenges for Etsy sellers, they were able to grow quickly and successfully establish a sustainable business.

Mercari
With the resurgence of peer-to-peer marketplaces, Mercari has grown to be one of the top-selling communities by catering to individual sellers. Using Shippo’s ePostage connection, Mercari automatically generated the appropriate label once a purchase is made, helping sellers quickly ship the items they sold. Much like eBay, Mercari’s push to help sellers with shipping builds trust directly into the marketplace and improves the shopping experience.

Make shipping a competitive advantage for you

As consumers demand free and fast shipping, more businesses need to take control of their shipping stack and make it a competitive advantage.

Shippo provides the shipping platform to help businesses conquer shipping. Businesses can leverage our direct USPS® API connection along with a global network of shipping providers to find the right solution for them. Whether to compare shipping rates, print labels, automate international paperwork, track packages, or facilitate returns, Shippo helps businesses succeed through shipping.

We are very excited to be at the intersection of ecommerce and shipping right now, providing the building blocks that empowers platforms, marketplaces, warehouses, and ecommerce stores with the shipping platform they need.

The United States POSTAL SERVICE™ and USPS® trademarks are the exclusive property rights of the United States Postal Service and are used on the site to refer to goods and services offered by the United States Postal Service. The United States Postal Service name and eagle logo are amongst the many trademarks of the United States Postal Service. Used with permission.

Shippo is a multi-carrier API and web app that helps retailers, marketplaces and platforms connect to a global network of carriers. Businesses use Shippo to get real-time rates, print labels, automate international paperwork, track packages and facilitate returns. Shippo provides the tools to help businesses succeed through shipping.