Katie-Jay Simmons
Ecommerce & Order Fulfillment Expert
Education & Credentials:
- Graduate Gemologist diploma from Gemological Institute of America (GIA)
- Applied Jewelry Professional certification
Expertise:
- Ecommerce
- Order fulfillment
- Shipping & logistics
- Listing optimization
- Dropshipping
- Luxury goods
- reCommerce (or “Reverse commerce”)
Highlights
- Ecommerce and retail expert with 10+ years of experience
- Study abroad participant in one of the leading countries for jewelry and gemstone export
Experience:
Katie-Jay Simmons aims to put answers in the hands of small business owners by leveraging more than 10 years of retail and hospitality experience. Informed by a background in gemology, she specializes in jewelry and luxury ecommerce with a focus on global sourcing. Her scope of expertise ranges from traditional brick-and-mortar businesses to innovative, high-volume ecommerce operations.
Featured in:
Hobbies:
When offline, Katie-Jay likes learning new musical instruments and exploring the red rock desert of Southern Utah.
December 22, 2022
How to Sell on Amazon in 6 Easy Steps: A Beginner’s Guide
Learning how to sell on Amazon can seem like an overwhelming and ambitious project. However, selling on the popular ecommerce platform requires only a few simple steps.
You’ll first have to plan which products to sell, and this involves understanding Amazon’s product restrictions and seller fees. Then, you’ll create a seller account and build your product listings. From there, you’ll need to manage your inventory and order fulfillment. Finally, because Amazon is such a competitive marketplace, you’ll need to manage your store’s performance.
Step 1: Choose a Competitive Product Offering
To create a selling strategy and decide which products to sell, you’ll need to get acquainted with the platform’s product restrictions and fees. From there, you can do product research to identify winning items.
Some products may be profitable and in demand, but their associated fees and regulations can incur additional labor and/or costs—which is important to keep in mind.
Step 2: Sign Up for an Amazon Seller Account
You need to register as an Amazon seller before selling products. Registration involves subscribing to one of two seller plans.
Step 3: Create Your Product Listings
Amazon sellers can create product listings in two ways: by adding items to existing product listings or by creating new product listings.
Adding items to current listings is by far the easiest method, and it’s how most beginners get started on Amazon. So we’ll begin there:
Manually Add Your Product to an Existing Listing
You’ve probably noticed that many products for sale on Amazon have multiple sellers, as shown below:
The second and third sellers in the list above added their items to this existing product listing. It might seem like a waste of time because of the existing competition—however, remember that the majority of sellers only keep a few items in stock. So, as others sell out, your listing will be the one available—and the one that shoppers buy.
Manually adding your product to an existing listing is accessible from your Seller Central Dashboard. You can follow the steps below:
Manually Create a New Product Listing
Amazon Professional sellers can create entirely new product listings for items not already sold on the marketplace. Generating new listings takes more time than adding products to an existing listing. However, it allows you to create a high-quality listing that sells using keyword research, product images, and detailed item descriptions.
To create a new product listing, you need the following information:
A product identifier: GTIN, UPC, ISBN, or EAN to specify the exact item you’re selling; find out more about which identifier is relevant to your product listing in Amazon’s listing requirements
A stock-keeping unit (SKU) number: A product ID you create to track your inventory
Offer details: Price, product condition, available quantity, and shipping options
Product details: Name, brand, category, description, and images
Keywords and search terms: Applicable keywords to help buyers find your product
You also need to build out your product detail page. If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon.com, you’ve seen one. Product detail pages are where customers find vital information about an item.
Title: 200 characters max, capitalize the first letter of every word
Images: 500 x 500 or 1,000 x 1,000 pixels to increase listing quality
Variations: Colors, scents, or sizes
Product description bullet points: Short, descriptive sentences highlighting key features and benefits
Featured offer ("Buy Box"): The featured offer on a detail page; customers can add to their cart or “Buy Now”
Other offers: The same product sold by multiple sellers offers different prices, shipping options, etc.
Product description: Keywords improve the chances that people will find your listing
Manage Your Product Listings: Use a Bulk Upload or Product Feed Tool
If you’re a Professional seller, you also have the option to add many product listings at once by uploading all of your product data using a spreadsheet.
If you also sell on your own website or plan to in the future, you can directly connect your products to Amazon. Here’s how both of these options work:
Step 4: Manage Your Inventory on Amazon
Accurately managing inventory is key to your success on Amazon since the platform will dock your seller rating for not promptly shipping items on that show as “in stock.”
Like the product listing methods described above, you have several choices regarding inventory management. Whichever method you choose, stay diligent about it to keep your Amazon seller rating high.
Amazon automatically reduces your inventory count as your Amazon items sell. If you sell only on Amazon, this should keep your counts correct. But if you sell the same stock on your website or in a retail store, you’ll probably need a different solution.
Step 5: Set Up Fulfillment & Shipping
As an Amazon seller, you have three options for delivering your products. First, you can do it yourself—maintaining your inventory and shipping products to customers—which is called merchant fulfillment. You can also let Amazon package, label, and ship products through FBA, or you can use a third-party fulfillment provider.
Step 6: Manage Store Performance
Once your store is up and running, it’s crucial to monitor, analyze, and promote your store’s performance for ongoing success.
Bottom Line
Amazon is a highly accessible platform that welcomes all kinds of merchants—from individuals selling a few items per month to power-sellers moving thousands of products each day. But while the barrier to entry is low, the competition is fierce and success is demanding.
You need to approach every Amazon product opportunity from a profit perspective. This considers the cost of the goods you sell and the time it takes to source products, create listings, manage inventory, and ship orders. Once you understand the basics of how to sell on Amazon, you can make decisions to help balance efficiencies, increase net profits, and find ways to grow.
December 19, 2022
7 Best Jewelry Inventory Software for 2023
Jewelry inventory software helps jewelry businesses organize and track metals, findings, gemstones, and finished products. The best solutions provide control and visibility throughout the supply chain and provide purpose-built tools made for working with jewelry.
Depending on your business model and scale, your inventory management needs may require specific features. Retail jewelry stores typically use an inventory system built into their point-of-sale (POS) software to facilitate in-store sales, while ecommerce stores rely heavily on platform integrations. If you need to track the materials and labor involved in making the jewelry you sell, look for a solution with manufacturing features.
The best inventory management software for small jewelry businesses are:
: Best for online jewelry stores
: Best for brick-and-mortar jewelry stores
: Best for omnichannel sellers
: Best for jewelry and watch repair shops and services
: Best for volume jewelry manufacturing
: Best for selling on Amazon, eBay, and other online marketplaces
: Best for handmade microbusinesses and solopreneurs
Best Jewelry Store Inventory Software Compared
Zoho Inventory: Best for Online Jewelry Stores
delivers a well-rounded platform to tackle small jewelry business inventory management at an affordable price. While it’s not the most specialized software on our list, Zoho comes with all the basic tools you need to track findings and finished products across multiple warehouses and ecommerce channels.
The software gives you options for recording granular item details (plus photos) as well as the ability to create and manage work orders. It also has basic manufacturing functions—enabling you to create a bill of materials, tally production costs, and generate custom prices for finished goods. Beyond inventory features, Zoho delivers purchase ordering, reporting, vendor management, and CRM tools to help your business run smoothly.
Zoho earned a total score of 4.45 out of 5 in our evaluation, performing well in each category. But it was docked in expert score for lacking the standout jewelry-specific features that wJewel and Valigara offer—such as default fields for specs like metal type and ctw, as well as the ability to pull gemstone reports from the GIA (Gemological Institute of America).
wJewel: Best for Brick-and-Mortar Jewelry Stores
is a retail POS (point-of-sale) jewelry store management software built to manage all aspects of your jewelry business—including your inventory. Unlike similar software (such as Lightspeed), every feature in wJewel is purpose-built for jewelry stores, which enables a variety of industry-specific functions that most competing platforms either can’t do or require workarounds to perform.
The software includes a sophisticated inventory management suite that updates inventory in real time across multiple sales channels and locations, including off-site locations held by contractors for secure tracking. It can even be set to automatically adjust selling prices based on real-time changes in the Rapaport Price List. wJewel’s unlimited user accounts come with granular, customizable permissions and action histories, making it useful for managing large teams.
wJewel scored 4.22 out of 5 in our evaluation, earning points for its impressive features and accessible monthly pricing (although no free plan like Zoho). We deducted points for the software’s outdated user interface; we found that it’s simple enough to navigate, but the old school platform is far less sleek than competitors like Lightspeed. Users report that the system also struggles with online integrations, making it a better choice for brick-and-mortar retailers than omnichannel sellers.
Lightspeed Retail: Best for Omnichannel Sellers
*Incurs Lightspeed Payments processing rate 2.6% + 10 cents per transaction
is another full-featured point-of-sale (POS) system but, unlike wJewel, it was built to serve a wide variety of industries. But what it lacks in jewelry-specific functionality it makes up for in robust connectivity and multichannel management capabilities—making it our top recommendation for juggling both in-store and online jewelry sales.
The software packs powerful inventory management features (among an array of other tools) into its cloud-based system, which is accessible from any computer, mobile device, or Lightspeed’s proprietary hardware. It connects with your online channels to sync inventory in real time, manage orders, run advanced reports, and facilitate hybrid fulfillment techniques like click and collect.
In our evaluation Lightspeed was awarded for its powerful inventory features and well-rounded store management capabilities, earning a final score of 4.07 out of 5. It also scored points for its overall popularity and granular inventory detail. However the software was docked for its high price point, unintuitive user interface, and lack of jewelry-specific features.
Orderry: Best for Jewelry & Watch Repair Shops and Services
delivers a strong platform purpose-built for managing job orders, complete with specialized inventory management tools. It enables users to create an unlimited number of bin locations with its built-in barcode generator, helping you keep findings, stones, and watch parts well-organized and easily accessible. From there, you can perform or automate bin-specific stocktakes as needed to monitor availability. It also has dedicated functions for tracking tools, consumables, and customer merchandise.
Beyond its inventory tools, Orderry’s powerful work order management features make it easy to create, price, and process jobs—and communicate with customers about their progress. It pulls work orders from multiple channels into one centralized database, which syncs with your inventory in real time for full control and visibility. Jobs can be scheduled and assigned to individual employees, who can access the platform at their bench from the Orderry app on any mobile device.
We gave Orderry a final score of 3.93 out of 5 in our evaluation. It offers robust functions tailor-made for repair shops at some of the lowest prices of any provider on our list—which earned it major points in our expert score for value. But the software was docked for its lack of connectivity with POS software and ecommerce platforms, as well as its low number of user reviews.
Katana: Best for Volume Jewelry Manufacturing
is a manufacturing ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution loaded with tools to help jewelry makers manage their inventory and production for maximum efficiency. It’s designed to give you visibility and control over all aspects of your operation—from purchasing raw materials to fulfilling customer orders.
While the majority of software options on this list have basic features to support manufacturing, Katana comes with sophisticated tools for tracking raw materials, components, products, tools, orders, and labor—as well as managing production with precise planning and costing. It can even create contract manufacturing workflows to give you high-level visibility on outsourced production. That being said, it doesn't come with features to create and manage work orders for functions like jewelry repair.
Katana scored 3.88 out of 5 in our evaluation, earning points for its powerful, specialized functions and solid ease of use. But the software comes at a high price point and includes overkill features that many small jewelry businesses don’t need, which ultimately brought down its score. Overall, these attributes make it best for mid- to high-volume manufacturers, while we recommend Craftybase for small-scale makers.
Valigara: Best for Selling on Online Marketplaces
is a specialized product information management (PIM) software tailor-made for selling jewelry on online marketplaces. The software features a simple, intuitive user interface for inventory management with tools for tracking materials, products, and variations in real time. It records granular product info with dynamic custom fields and connectivity to GIA and RapNet for pulling reports.
But Valigara sets itself apart from the competition through its marketing and listing optimization tools—which include automations for posting, revising, and renewing listings as well as robust ecommerce SEO features. Valigara’s Data Enhancement tools use your product info to automatically generate listing content that’s optimized for each marketplace’s specific search algorithm, leading to greater visibility and more sales.
The software comes at a much higher price point than the other options on our list, which significantly brought down its score in our evaluation. But its fine-tuned, jewelry-specific features and overall ease of use helped bolster its final score, ultimately earning 3.5 out of 5.
Craftybase: Best for Handmade Microbusinesses & Solopreneurs
is an ERP solution designed to track manufacturing and inventory for small in-house manufacturing teams—making it an excellent tool for small-scale, handmade jewelry businesses.
The software seamlessly integrates with your online storefronts to track inventory and orders in real time. A suite of basic manufacturing features enables you to organize items by materials, components, and finished products, as well as create “recipes” for your assemblies. It uses your materials and labor costs to offer straightforward pricing guidance and tallies your COGS (cost of goods sold) with GAAP-compliant calculations throughout the year.
Craftybase lacks many of the functions that growing businesses may need (like POS connectivity, accounting integrations, and purchase ordering)—which cost it points in the ease of use section of our evaluation. Plus, even its highest-tier plan can only accommodate small teams. But the software delivers comprehensive inventory features on a user-friendly platform at highly affordable prices, helping it achieve a final score of 3.49 out of 5.
How We Evaluated Jewelry Store Inventory Management Software
We evaluated dozens of inventory solutions, focusing on inventory-fist platforms as well as software that was purpose-built for the jewelry industry.
We looked for inventory management functions with the capacity to store important item details (like metal type, stone type, diamond specs, ctw, and ring size) as well as location tools to track and organize small stones and findings. We also prioritized economical pricing and factors that contribute to overall ease of use, as well as the manufacturing features that makers need to stay on top of production.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
Bottom Line
Using a jewelry inventory system is an effective way to save time, increase efficiency, and prevent costly issues like shrinkage and stockouts. Inventory solutions are available as standalone software or tools that come incorporated in your store’s POS.
The best jewelry inventory software depends on your unique business needs—such as your inventory type, business model, manufacturing process, and sales channels. For small ecommerce jewelry businesses, we recommend Zoho Inventory.
November 15, 2022
Cyber Monday Strategies & Tips for Small Businesses
This year, online holiday sales are expected to reach up to $267.6 billion—an increase of 10%–12% from last year. And Cyber Monday (the online shopping holiday on the Monday after Thanksgiving) is slated to remain the biggest shopping day of the season, racking up an expected $11.2 billion in sales.
Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store and website or sell exclusively online, adopting Cyber Monday strategies is crucial for driving sales during the holiday season.
Here are seven top small business Cyber Monday strategies and tips for improving the shopping experience and making the most of the annual shopping event:
1. Make a Great Offer for Cyber Monday
First, you need to determine which products to offer and promotions to run. According to Deloitte’s 2020 Pre-Thanksgiving Pulse Survey, better deals and lower prices are the most compelling reasons to shop. Next, free or fast shipping and good return options are what shoppers want.
For Cyber Monday, your best promotional strategy is offering a percentage discount or specific markdowns on particular items. Also, prioritize making life easier for shoppers—be generous in your shipping and return policies.
Shoppers are willing to search around for the best prices, with 83% saying that getting a great deal has the biggest influence on their retailer selection. In other words, small retailers can compete with larger stores by offering competitive prices.
When it comes to the question of which products to put on sale, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Some options include:
A flagship item (often deeply discounted by up to 50% off or more) to generate buzz and bring in qualified traffic
Slow-moving items and/or less popular product categories
Popular gift categories, like clothing, toys, and electronics
Your store’s entire catalog
Gift cards are a top holiday gift across the board, so another idea is to start with a buy one, get one at a discount gift card offer. Alternatively, you can offer a free bonus card with each gift card purchase of a set value— like a $5 bonus for every $25 card purchased.
There are several different strategies for promotions and offers that any retailer can use. Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce have built-in features that make it easy to offer one or more of these promotions on your site and push them out across other online sales channels like Amazon and Facebook.
2. Advertise Effectively
Now that you have a great deal for Cyber Monday, it’s time to develop an effective advertising strategy. To get the results you want, shoppers need to know about your store and your Cyber Monday sale. For online shopping, there are four main advertising channels we’ll focus on:
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Facebook
Instagram
Email
Here’s how to use these channels for you Cyber Monday advertising:
Build a Dedicated Cyber Monday Landing Page
When shoppers arrive on a dedicated Cyber Monday landing page, it shows them they’re in the right place for powerful seasonal deals. Then it guides them toward conversion and promotes targeted offers.
Part of effective Cyber Monday advertising is building a slick-looking and on-brand landing page that pushes shoppers to purchase from your store. To learn how, read our guide to creating a landing page.
Increase Visibility With SEO
Online search is the number-one place holiday shoppers go for gift-giving inspiration—and 67% of customers say they prefer to do their holiday shopping online this year.
But the commerce landscape is highly saturated as well as fiercely competitive, so sellers must take measures to increase their store’s online visibility through search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a set of practices that improve your products’ visibility and help your store gain more clicks while boosting conversions.
Here are some SEO Cyber Monday strategies to get your goods onto holiday shoppers’ radar:
Sell & Advertise on Facebook
If you don’t already have a Facebook business page for your retail store, the pre-holiday season is an excellent time to set one up. It’s simple and can be accomplished in a matter of minutes. Once you have your Facebook business page, you can sell items directly through Facebook. It’s a successful channel to use because it streamlines the sales process by letting customers discover, shop, and checkout without leaving the app. This frictionless model also makes paid ads highly effective.
Before running a paid Facebook ad campaign, the first step is to create regular posts to schedule throughout the week leading up to Cyber Monday. Facebook video posts receive a higher click-through rate (CTR) than other post types.
So it’s a good idea to make a video showcasing your products and deals. To liven up regular in-feed image posts, you can use a free tool like to create professional-looking on-brand posts. To save time and ensure you’re targeting your audience at the right time, schedule the posts directly through Facebook.
Once your page and regular posts are set up, the final step is to advertise. Facebook is a powerful advertising tool, especially for small businesses. It offers an even playing field between big and small retailers for reaching a targeted audience for a relatively small investment.
There are several different ways to advertise on Facebook—you can boost a post or create an ad campaign. Often, the most effective strategy is creating a specific Cyber Monday ad campaign using Facebook Pixel. Pixel helps retarget people that have clicked on your ads or visited your website so that your Facebook campaigns are shown to people who have demonstrated interest.
Sell & Advertise on Instagram
As a highly visual platform, Instagram is an excellent channel to showcase your products in their best light. Like Facebook, Instagram is also shoppable, making it a great place to convert followers into shoppers.
The first step to start selling on Instagram is to make sure you have an Instagram Business account. You’ll need to connect your Instagram account to your Facebook account and create a product catalog or connect it to an existing online store. Next, create shoppable posts that promote your products and the Cyber Monday deals you’re running.
The final step is to create an advertising campaign. Since Facebook owns Instagram, you create Instagram ads under your Facebook Business Page. Alternatively, if you are using an ecommerce platform like Shopify, you can manage your ads and product catalogs directly through your Shopify dashboard.
Shoppable Instagram posts can be used to advertise your products and give shoppers a frictionless way to buy.
(Source: Ecwid)
Use Email Marketing
Email marketing is a tried-and-true marketing tool for online businesses. According to Litmus email software, email campaigns generate $36 for every $1 spent on a campaign, which is higher than any other channel.
The key to email marketing for retailers is to personalize your campaigns to different audience segments; marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue. Another study found that a segmented email campaign can get open rates as high as 94% and CTRs of 38%.
Many national brands send out their Cyber Monday promotions on the day itself. But attempting this strategy runs the risk of getting drowned out in a sea of other promotions. The solution is to get in first and send out your promotions the night before. You can then create an email sequence and send out a reminder later in the day.
An effective strategy for email marketing is to promote a specific deal or product in the email. Then, have the email link to a landing page that is specific to your deal. This helps streamline purchases and make the process easier for shoppers, especially for mobile users.
3. Provide a Great Experience
So you’ve attracted shoppers to your site with targeted advertising campaigns and irresistible promotional offers. What’s next? You need to make sure you’re providing shoppers with an easy-to-use, enjoyable and frictionless shopping experience. Doing so minimizes bounce rate and shopping cart abandonment—which in turn maximizes conversion.
Here are a few simple steps you can take to improve your site’s user experience for Cyber Monday:
4. Offer Convenience Services
The rise in contactless experiences during the covid pandemic sparked an enduring demand for convenience services. Even as shoppers are feeling more comfortable returning to stores, options like Buy Online, Pick Up In-store (BOPIS); Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL); and contactless payments are in high demand.
Embrace customers’ preferences and make the shopping experience as comfortable as possible by implementing these services. And make sure to promote them alongside your deals and offers, so interested shoppers will know that the options are available.
5. Close the Sale & Prevent Cart Abandonment
Getting customers on your site and clicking “Add to Cart” is only half the battle. On average, nearly 70% of online retail orders are abandoned altogether. And cart abandonments during shopping holidays tend to be even slightly higher.
Here are a few strategies for reducing cart abandonment rates on Cyber Monday:
6. Earn a Lifelong Customer
Cyber Monday is a great opportunity to get in front of new customers. Ideally, these customers will continue to buy from you long after the holidays are over.
When compared to new customers, existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and typically spend 31% more on average—so it’s important to hang on to previous customers.
Even if you manage to just hang on to a few of your Cyber Monday customers, the results in time will be well worth the effort.
Here are a few Cyber Monday Strategies to increase customer retention:
7. Prepare for Next Year
Hopefully, by following all of these tips, you’ll experience record-breaking Cyber Monday sales. But—believe it or not—once the holiday season is over it’s already time to start planning for next year. You can never prepare too early. And starting preparations promptly will get you ahead of the competition.
Here are some Cyber Monday strategies to prepare for 2023:
Beef Up Your Social Media Presence
Take the same concepts you used to create your Cyber Monday sales posts and use them to showcase your products year-round. By scheduling your social media posts ahead of time, you can keep an active page by just investing a few hours a week.
More followers on social media equal more eyeballs for your Cyber Monday promotions. So, work on building followers throughout the year so that next year’s promotions have an even greater impact.
Take High-quality Product Photos
Brick-and-mortar stores have the advantage of letting customers feel and test products in person before making a purchase. For online sellers, your product page and photos are all you have to work with. Give shoppers a clear idea of your products and ease any concerns by having high-quality photos that highlight products individually and lifestyle shots that show your products in action.
Give multiple perspectives: Make sure to offer pictures of all angles of each product so there is nothing left to the imagination and customers aren’t surprised when their order shows up.
Showcase different sizes: If you sell apparel (which has notoriously high return rates) take pictures of models wearing different sizes so shoppers can get a better sense of how the item will fit.
Lighting matters: Bright white lighting will help showcase the product accurately.
Gather More Reviews
Online reviews are social proof and help build trust among consumers. Nearly 50% of consumers say they trust the reviews they read online as much as personal recommendations.
Reviews also help shoppers understand what makes your product or service stand out from the competition.
Your website needs genuine reviews to show customers that what you’re selling is worth their money, whether they are buying something for themselves or a gift for someone else.
Here are a few tips to get more customer reviews:
Offer an incentive like loyalty points or discount coupons to current customers who write reviews. Adagio Teas, for example, rewards customers with five loyalty points for each review written, and it has helped them generate hundreds of reviews per product.
You can also offer raffle entries to customers who leave product reviews; prizes may include gift certificates or bestselling items in your store.
Use a customer loyalty program like that makes it easy for employees to ask customers to leave reviews.
Cyber Monday Sales Trends
As you review our seven tips and plan your Cyber Monday strategies, keep in mind recent trends that can inform your decisions.
Every year since 2009, Cyber Monday sales have steadily increased on both mobile and desktop devices. Plus, the general trend toward online purchases has been accelerated as a lasting result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, rising inflation and supply chain crunches are expected to impact Cyber Monday for consumers and retailers alike. Consumer Price Index is up 7.7% over 2021, causing significant increases in the cost of goods.
But according to the NRF, total holiday sales for 2022 are projected to grow 6%–8% over the previous year, reaching up to $960.4 billion. This means consumers will still be on the hunt for holiday gifts, but deals will be the top driver behind their purchase decisions.
Additionally, like its sister shopping holiday Black Friday, Cyber Monday is increasingly expanding beyond just a single day. Some retailers, particularly those with both brick-and-mortar and ecommerce operations, are effectively merging the two events into one long sale. For other online retailers, Cyber Monday is evolving into a weeklong sales event, known as Cyber Week.
Bottom Line
Standing out from the crowd on Cyber Monday isn’t always easy, especially as a small business. You need to have clear Cyber Monday strategies and make your offers irresistible to your target audience.
Effective advertising, compelling deals, and a smooth shopping experience are all essential components of a successful Cyber Monday. Approach Cyber Monday with a step-by-step strategic approach and see what results you can drive.
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October 17, 2022
Best Shipping Software for Small Businesses
Small businesses can bolster their shipping process by using shipping software to compare rates, generate labels, organize orders, and more. The cost of these tools varies from free to hundreds of dollars per month and is typically billed on a monthly basis without the need for a long-term contract.
The best shipping software integrates directly with your ecommerce platform and other necessary tools. It also has robust order management features, generates helpful reports, and provides high-quality customer support. Many shipping solutions also provide significant discounts on standard shipping rates—making in-house fulfillment much more affordable.
Based on our evaluation, the best shipping solutions are:
: Best overall shipping software for small businesses
: Best for high-volume sellers seeking a multipurpose tool
: Best for crowdfunding campaigns
: Best for companies scaling to meet shipping demands
: Best for small-scale sellers and ecommerce beginners
: Best for international shipping
Best Shipping Software Compared
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ShippingEasy: Best Overall Shipping Software
is a cloud-based application that offers the best combination of savings, integrations, features, and functionality—making it our top recommendation. It also delivers an impressive set of additional features, helping you tackle your inventory management, customer relationship management, and marketing efforts. These features helped ShippingEasy earn a total score of 4.2 out of 5 on our assessment.
As a shipping management tool, ShippingEasy allows users to functionally organize orders and compare rates side-by-side in an intuitive interface, as shown below.
ShippingEasy’s platform is designed for small businesses, but the company’s top-tier plan (called the Enterprise program) provides valuable benefits for high-volume operations as well such as unlimited users and custom configurations from a shipping expert. For users shipping over 10,000 orders per month, custom pricing may be available.
ShippingEasy Features
Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive deeply discounted UPS rates and discounted USPS Commercial Plus rates. ShippingEasy also works with your own negotiated rates.
Exclusive Priority Mail service rates: ‘Flat Rate Green’ is ShippingEasy’s exclusive discounted dimensional pricing for USPS Priority Mail services. It provides low costs on parcels weighing 20lbs or less, with more dimensional flexibility than standard Flat Rate packaging.
Integrations: ShippingEasy directly integrates with 65 other tools, including 60 popular ecommerce platforms and solutions such as Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Magento, WooCommerce, Etsy, BigCommerce, Walmart, PayPal, and more. Connect your USPS, FedEx, UPS and DHL account for streamlined shipping.
Automation: Save time and labor by easily programming rules into your shipping workflow to automate shipment selections, tracking updates, confirmation emails, buy and print functions, label creation, order splitting, FBA routing, and more.
Order management: ShippingEasy gives you split/combine/recombine functions, batch processing, CSV entry, customizable grouping, manual entry/editing, gift options, returns management, and more. It also offers customizable packing slips, barcode creation, and location support for picking and packing.
Inventory management: Manage your stock with real-time inventory tracking, product catalog support, product image support, customizable categories, and barcode compatibility.
Marketing tools: ShippingEasy’s Customer Marketing add-on gives you fully customizable plug-and-play templates and contact/data management tools to supercharge your email marketing. It also includes campaign management, feedback requests, and interactive metrics.
Peripheral hardware: Use thermal/laser printers, scales, and barcode scanners through ConnectEasy—the company’s proprietary connectivity application.
Customer service: Highly rated support is available by live chat, phone, and email to Basic-level users and above. Customers on the Starter plan are limited to forum communication with support staff.
Online resources: Reference ShippingEasy’s marketing resource hub, case study reports, shipping guides, blogs, checklists, forums, and calculator tools.
Highly rated: ShippingEasy is rated 4.8/5 from about 1,100 user reviews on Capterra, and 4.6/5 from some three dozen reviews on G2.
What ShippingEasy Is Missing
ShippingEasy isn’t compatible with direct connections to dropshipping suppliers, making it a poor choice for sellers doing a high volume of dropshipped sales. The program does allow users to mark an order as “shipped” at any stage—which is a work-around used by occasional dropshippers—but Ordoro is a far better choice for sellers needing vendor connectivity.
If you ship both parcels and LTL truck freight, ShipStation readily integrates with a larger range of carriers than ShippingEasy. Plus, it offers a mobile app, while ShippingEasy doesn’t.
The limitations on ShippingEasy’s lowest-level plan is another area of compromise. Starter plan users don’t have access to international shipping, FedEx integration, or customer support (except through a public forum).
For more information, read our in-depth ShippingEasy review.
Ordoro: Best Shipping Software for High-volume Sellers Seeking a Multipurpose Tool
Like our other picks, offers great shipping functionality—but where this software really impresses is in advanced inventory management and automated purchasing features that seamlessly integrate with its shipping system. This makes it great for high-volume sellers.
These features earned it major points in our evaluation, along with its affordable pricing and generous free plan. However the provider was docked for its restrictive sales channel allowances and the lack of a few key features—such as displaying live shipping rates at checkout. Ultimately, Ordoro earned a score of 4.04 out of 5.
Its robust integrations with the top dropshipping marketplaces makes Ordoro a must-have for dedicated dropshippers and retailers supplementing their offerings with dropshipped goods.
While its wide-spanning features are powerful, they come at a cost. Many of Ordoro’s capabilities—including its advanced inventory management tools—are only available on its higher-level plans.
Ordoro Features
Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive discounted USPS Commercial Plus rates and discounted shipping insurance.
Integrations: Ordoro integrates with eight shipping carriers including USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL, as well as 38 other ecommerce platforms and solutions. Open API is available on the Pro and Enterprise plans.
Automation: Ordoro provides advanced automation features to program rules and maps into your shipping workflow. Dropshippers can set up manual, semi-automatic, or fully automatic dropshipping.
Supplier management: Assign suppliers to products, track specific costs, customize workflows, and allow access to a vendor portal. Enterprise plan users can access supplier and third-party warehouse direct integration.
Order management: Manage returns, receive and restock goods, initiate RMAs (return merchandise authorizations), and view orders from all sales channels from your dashboard. Plus access built-in address validation and barcode scanning.
Inventory management: Pro plan users have access to advanced inventory management features, including multichannel inventory sync, real-time inventory tracking, stock alerts, allocation, and one-click PO creation. Multichannel sellers can link product listings on various channels to a “master product” in your Ordoro inventory catalog.
Marketing tools: Create a branded experience by customizing labels, packing slips, outbound emails, and tracking pages.
Peripheral hardware: Ordoro supports USB scales, plus scanner and printer connectivity.
Customer service: Austin, Texas-based support staff is available by phone or email Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Central time. Limited email support is offered on weekends.
Online resources: Ordoro hosts a resource library with videos, guides, case studies, a blog, and an API forum.
What Ordoro Is Missing
Ordoro’s biggest drawback is its pricing model. Some of the most important features—such as inventory management capabilities, API access, and returns processing—are only available on the second-tier paid plan, which may be unaffordable for many small businesses.
All of Ordoro’s three plan options are missing a few helpful functions that the competitors offer. The software is incompatible with scan-based return labels and can’t display live shipping rates at checkout. For these features, we recommend ShippingEasy.
Unlike EasyShip and ShipStation, Ordoro doesn’t offer a mobile app.
Read our Ordoro review for more information.
EasyShip: Best Shipping Software for Crowdfunding Campaigns
delivers an easy-to-use shipping solution with affordable pricing and powerful features that set it apart from competitors. Plus, the platform is available on a mobile app for iOS and Android.
The provider caters to crowdfunding campaigns by offering connectivity with all of the leading marketplaces as well as special pricing options. If your crowdfunding project has been successfully funded, EasyShip will waive its monthly fee until you’ve shipped all of your initial campaign.
It also offers a suite of tools designed specially for crowdfunding, called EasyShip Collect, which lets your backers upgrade shipping, prepay duty and tax, and add shipping insurance.
These special features helped EasyShip earn points in our evaluation, along with its impressive 24/7 support accessibility, international shipping capabilities, and overall functionality. We detracted points for its limited range of plan options, incompatibility with peripheral devices, and lackluster order/inventory management features—ultimately giving EasyShip a score of 4.03 out of 5.
EasyShip Features
Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive discounted USPS Commercial Plus rates as well as discounted UPS and DHL Express rates.
Integrations: EasyShip integrates with 13 shipping carriers including USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL, as well as 31 other ecommerce platforms and solutions. Open API is also available.
Automation: EasyShip provides basic automation capabilities to program shipping rules on all free and paid plans.
Supplier management: Assign suppliers to products, track specific costs, customize workflows, and allow access to a vendor portal. Enterprise plan users can access supplier and third-party warehouse direct integration.
Order management: Manage orders and returns from EasyShip’s dashboard, which features advanced search and filtering tools.
Inventory management: EasyShip lets you manage shipping-related product information (such as dimensions and category) to work in tandem with your ecommerce platform’s inventory management features.
Marketing tools: Create a branded customer experience by adding your logo and custom text to packing slips, outbound emails, and dedicated tracking pages.
Customer service: All paid plan users can access 24/7 live chat support. Phone support is available to Premier and Enterprise subscribers, while users on EasyShip’s free plan can contact support through email or Facebook messaging.
Online resources: EasyShip’s online resource hub features extensive tutorials in addition to free shipping tools, case studies, a blog, and ecommerce shipping guides.
What EasyShip Is Missing
EasyShip’s limited range of paid plans means that some users might be paying for a plan with a significantly greater shipment allowance than they need. To ensure you only pay for what you actually use, we prefer Ordoro’s “flex pricing” structure or Shippo’s wide range of 11 plan options.
Additionally, EasyShip users can’t connect useful hardware like shipping scales or scanners, which could create an obstacle for businesses that rely on these devices in their shipping workflow. ShippingEasy is the better choice for peripheral connectivity.
We also found that the platform lacks functionality when it comes to inventory and order management and doesn't provide the option to modify user permissions (which can be a helpful feature for dropshippers). While EasyShip can accomplish the basics, Ordoro is a more robust multifunctional tool.
ShipStation: Best Shipping Software for Companies Scaling to Meet Shipping Demands
beats our other recommendations in the number of carriers its shipping software supports. It offers far more plug-and-play integrations with fulfillment centers, freight companies, and international carriers.
Since these types of shipping services are typically used by mid- to high-volume ecommerce sellers, this impressive feature doesn’t weigh as heavily for small business needs. However, it’s nice to know you can quickly scale to meet freight and international shipping demands as needed.
Like our other picks, ShipStation also offers wonderfully intuitive order processing and multi-carrier shipping rate comparison screens. You can easily access and print order invoices, packing slips, and shipping labels—individually or in batches—and send shipment tracking data back to sale channels.
It stands out from the competition in its robust returns management features and mobile app offering—which earned ShipStation significant points in our evaluation. The software was docked for its steep learning curve and bleak online reviews. Ultimately, it earned a score of 3.93 out 5.
ShipStation Features
Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive discounted USPS Commercial Plus rates, discounted UPS rates, DHL Express Worldwide Shipping Discounts, and more.
Integrations: ShipStation integrates with 53 shipping carriers including USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL, as well as 70 of the top sales channels and 215+ other ecommerce platforms and solutions. Open API is also available.
Automation: ShipStation supports setting product defaults and preset groups, service mappings, and automation rules that apply preset actions to selected orders.
Order management: All ShipStation plans come with standard order management features—plus a robust returns management platform with a branded returns portal for your customers. Pick and pack features are also included to minimize packing errors.
Inventory management: Basic inventory management features are accessible from ShipStation’s web or mobile app, including catalog support, stock allocation, inventory alerts, and syncing.
Marketing tools: Create a branded experience by customizing labels, packing slips, outbound emails, and tracking pages.
Peripheral hardware: Use thermal/laser printers, scales, and barcode scanners through ShipStation Connect—the company’s proprietary connectivity application.
Customer service: Support staff is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–8 p.m. Central time. Phone support is only available to top-tier, Enterprise plan users. Chat support is available to Bronze plans and higher. Email response times may exceed one business day.
Online resources: Reference ShipStation’s large integrations help guide, workflow guides, troubleshooting guide, mobile help guide, FAQ, forum, YouTube tutorials, and webinar library.
What ShipStation Is Missing
While its aggregate rating isn’t bad, we found that an overwhelming number of reviews left for ShipStation in the past 12 months were ardently negative. Users frequently report bugs and known issues persisting without attention from the development team, as well as extremely poor customer service.
Many small businesses may not need customer service from their shipping software—especially if you’re using only prebuilt integrations and selling volumes below enterprise level. But if accessible support is important to you, ShippingEasy is a much better choice than ShipStation.
ShipStation lacks a free plan, and its pricing is slightly more expensive than the other providers on our list. Because of this, we recommend seeking a free alternative if you’re a low-volume shipper.
We also found that ShipStation isn't the most functional choice for dropshipping management. Through granular user permissions options, you can grant your suppliers a ShipStation user account that only has access to specific orders. This workaround makes dropshipping possible—but a bit tricky. If a portion of your sales come from dropship suppliers, we recommend Ordoro instead.
For a full list of integrations and features, read our ShipStation review.
OrderCup: Best Shipping Software for Small-scale Sellers & Ecommerce Beginners
scored 3.89 out of 5 on our assessment, largely thanks to its friendly pricing and excellent ease of use. The software is great for accomplishing the basics—like managing shipments, comparing rates, and organizing multichannel orders.
While it lacks the accessories and extra features of many competitors, OrderCup is one of the most affordable options on our list. It’s a great choice for small-scale sellers and those wishing to test how shipping software fits into their selling strategy, as well as ecommerce beginners who may need a user-friendly platform with high-quality support.
In our evaluation, OrderCup scored points for its top-notch customer service, simple dashboard, and robust international shipping functionality. It was docked for its lack of integration options and undeveloped resource library.
OrderCup Features
Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive discounted USPS Commercial Plus rates and discounted shipping insurance. OrderCup works with your own negotiated rates, as well.
Shipping perks: Every account receives access to free pickups, free shipping supplies, and free global address verification.
Integrations: OrderCup has 36 direct integrations, including 19 popular ecommerce platforms and solutions like Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Magento, WooCommerce, Etsy, BigCommerce, Walmart, PayPal, and more. Connect your USPS, FedEx, UPS, DHL, Amazon, Canada Post, Purolator and UK Mail accounts for streamlined shipping. No API is currently available.
Automation: Create automated defaults, predefined package types, and profiles for your shipping methods. OrderCup has sophisticated filtering to categorize order and shipping rules to automate processing—plus automated insurance rules to decide which orders to insure for how much.
Order management: All OrderCupplans come with basic order management features such as batch processing, CSV entry, manual entry/editing, returns management, and more.
Inventory management: Manage your stock by using OrderCup’s product catalog support with warehouse assignment options and automatic syncing through multiple channels.
Marketing: Send and automate branded outgoing emails, packing slips, and tracking notifications.
Peripheral hardware: OrderCup supports web-based direct printing of labels, customs forms, and packing slips to most thermal and laser or inkjet printers, plus zero-configuration scale and scanner support on PCs and Macs.
Customer service: Support is available to all plans seven days a week, 7 a.m.–6 p.m. Pacific time—plus a separate Europe-based support center operating 7 a.m.–6 p.m. GMT. Contact staff through email, phone, live chat, or live screen sharing.
Online resources: Reference OrderCup’s video library and blog.
Highly rated: OrderCup is rated 4.8/5 from some 300 user reviews on the Shopify App Store, and 4.78/5 from about 20 reviews on the BigCommerce App Store.
What OrderCup Is Missing
Many of the competing shipping solutions have functionality that could potentially replace other tools in your arsenal, whereas OrderCup is much more rudimentary. Furthermore, it lacks the ability to work for dropshippers. For advanced dropshipping and inventory management features, we recommend Ordoro.
OrderCup isn’t as scalable as other options, either. The 12,000-shipment cap on its highest-level plan could mean needing to eventually migrate to another solution. Plus, its sparse integrations could pose a problem for high-volume sellers.
We found that OrderCup has the most limited reporting and analysis capabilities of the providers on our list. It does present helpful data on sales, shipments, orders, and costs, but ShippingEasy’s customizable reporting options are more advanced.
Read our OrderCup review for more information.
Shippo: Best Shipping Software for International Shipping
Overall, we gave a 3.59 out of 5 in our evaluation—it’s slightly more expensive than the other providers on our list, but it delivers features to support scalability and international shipping that set it apart. It offers extensive connectivity with the leading ecommerce channels and tools, as well as a wide selection of paid plans that provide a fit for any volume without overpaying.
For your international orders, Shippo offers free Paperless Trade options to send and manage customs documents electronically. It also supplies prefilled customs forms to expedite the label generation process.
These features helped boost the provider’s score, but it was docked for lacking peripheral hardware connectivity as well as dropshipping tools, inventory management features, and useful reporting capabilities.
Shippo Features
Discounted shipping rates: All plans receive discounted USPS Commercial Plus rates and discounted DHL express rates.
Integrations: Shippo integrates with 25 shipping carriers including USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL, as well as 88 other ecommerce platforms and solutions. Open API is also available.
Automation: All paid plans can create automation rules within the web app to program package templates and shipping actions.
Order management: Manage returns, receive and restock goods, and view/filter orders from your Shippo dashboard— plus built-in global address validation and partial fulfillment options to split an order into multiple shipments.
Inventory management: Shippo’s platform stores package- and product-related data, but lacks robust inventory management functionality. Users may want to connect a dedicated inventory management app.
Marketing tools: Add branding and custom text to email notifications and tracking pages.
Peripheral hardware: Shippo does not support connectivity with peripheral devices.
Customer service: San Francisco-based support staff is available by email, or live chat 6 a.m.–6 p.m. Pacific time Monday through Friday, and 6 a.m.–2 p.m. Pacific time Saturdays and Sundays.
Online resources: Shippo hosts a resource database that includes tutorials, guides, case studies, e-books, webinars, podcasts, and a shipping encyclopedia.
What Shippo Is Missing
Shippo is one of the pricier providers on our list, and it doesn’t offer a truly free starter plan. It also limits the majority of its paid plans to five user accounts, and additional users cannot be added. If you need to create accounts for your team but don’t want to invest in an enterprise-level custom plan, Ordoro is a better choice.
It’s also missing peripheral connectivity to work with devices like scanners and scales. If you frequently use shipping hardware, ShippingEasy may be a better fit.
Unlike EasyShip and ShipStation, Shippo doesn’t offer a mobile app, and many reviews state that its web app is not mobile-friendly. Plus, its inventory and order management capabilities are limited, leaving users to rely on other connected apps.
To see a full list of paid plan options plus reviews and more, read out Shippo review.
Methodology: How We Evaluated Shipping Software
We compared a lineup of the most popular ecommerce shipping solutions, looking for high-performing functions, an intuitive interface, effective customer support, and additional features that go beyond the scope of shipping.
To find the best tool for small businesses, we prioritized economical pricing and factors that contribute to overall ease of use. Our ecommerce experts also weighed in with their assessments of each provider.
Based on our criteria, ShippingEasy is the best shipping management software for small businesses, earning the highest overall score according to our grading system (4.2 out of 5). ShippingEasy’s economical plan pricing, discounted shipping rates, robust features, and excellent ease of use make it the best choice for online sellers.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
Small Business Shipping Software Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is shipping software?
At its core, shipping software is a solution that enables users to create and print shipping labels from their home, office, or warehouse. Most shipping solutions also include related features to compare rates, manage orders, and generate reports.
How does shipping software help?
Shipping software allows ecommerce businesses to efficiently manage shipments by organizing orders, comparing up-to-date rates from multiple carriers, automating tasks, and providing insights.
Plus, you can skip the post office by purchasing and printing labels directly from your computer.
How much does shipping software cost?
Like many ecommerce tools, shipping software is typically available as a SaaS subscription, billed on a monthly basis. The cost varies from free to hundreds of dollars per month, and it usually doesn’t require a contract.
The monthly cost of shipping software usually depends on the number of shipping labels and user accounts you need.
Bottom Line
Comparing rates among multiple carriers is the only way to ensure you’re getting the best shipping cost on every package you send. Using shipping software is the most efficient way to accomplish that—as well as manage your shipments, organize orders, track inventory, and more.
Taking all details into account, ShippingEasy is our overall pick for the best shipping software for ecommerce sellers. Its affordable paid plans offer impressive functionality across a host of helpful features—delivering the shipping and order management tools that multichannel sellers need to grow at the best price.
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October 17, 2022
ShippingEasy Review: Best Shipping Software for Small Business
ShippingEasy is a cloud-based order fulfillment and shipping solution that integrates with ecommerce platforms and shopping cart applications. It’s designed for ecommerce retailers and other online businesses shipping products to customers.
In our evaluation of the best shipping software for small businesses, ShippingEasy ranked #1 with a score of 4.2 out of 5, earning points for its excellent value, accessible customer support, and powerful features.
can help businesses improve their in-house fulfillment workflow by increasing efficiency, minimizing errors, and saving on label costs. Thanks to its integration capabilities and order management features, the platform is a solid choice for ecommerce businesses. Plus, ShippingEasy’s range of plan options makes it accessible for high-volume merchants, startups, crowdfunding ventures, and businesses shipping auxiliary goods (like samples, swag, or bonuses).
While ShippingEasy can save you time, it’s not a hands-off solution; businesses seeking to outsource their order fulfillment should look to ShipBob (our top pick for third-party order fulfillment). Due to the restrictive limitations on ShippingEasy’s free starter plan, low-volume shippers and ecommerce newcomers may want to consider an alternative.
ShippingEasy Deciding Factors
*Aggregate rating based on total scores from Capterra, Shopify App Store, TrustRadius, and G2
ShippingEasy Alternatives
ShippingEasy scored highly in our pricing category thanks to its functional free plan, competitively priced paid plans, and helpful shipping discounts. Its range of plan options isn’t as accommodating as competitors like Shippo and Ordoro, which brought its final score down slightly.
Here’s a breakdown of ShippingEasy pricing:
Free Starter Plan
Like most of our top shipping software picks, ShippingEasy offers a free starter plan—which allows one user 25 monthly shipments. It also comes with some other notable restrictions. Starter plan users can’t contact customer support via the standard channels (phone, email, and chat). Instead, users must post issues and questions on the community forum and wait for a team member’s response.
While this method of communication is reasonably effective, you’ll receive help on the support team’s schedule—not your own.
Furthermore, some key features aren’t available to Starter plan users—such as international shipping, FedEx integration, and reporting and analytics. CSV upload is also unavailable to starter plan subscribers.
For these reasons, we recommend choosing ShippingEasy’s Basic plan or looking elsewhere for a more functional starter program. OrderCup has a highly rated free plan that provides exceptional customer support and up to 50 shipments a month. If you’re looking for a greater shipment allowance, Ordoro’s free starter plan provides a whopping 1,000 labels per month.
Paid Plans
ShippingEasy’s pricing varies based on five paid subscription options. The main differences between the plans are the number of monthly shipments, user account allowance, customer support accessibility, and access to certain features.
As a user, you can cancel or switch plans at any time. There’s no contract to use ShippingEasy, so all changes take effect the very next month. A 30-day free trial is available to test out any paid plan before subscribing.
If a user goes over their monthly shipment limit, ShippingEasy will automatically upgrade you to the next higher plan for the month. This structure isn’t as customer-favoring as Ordoro’s "flex pricing" approach, which charges you a cost-effective, prorated amount for any overages.
That being said, ShippingEasy beats Ordoro when it comes to its store and channel allowance. The latter limits users to just two sales channels on its $59 per month plan, and charges $10 for each additional store above that limit. ShippingEasy allows unlimited channels on all plans.
ShippingEasy users can add additional user accounts to any plan for $5 per month, making the plans somewhat customizable. The software’s marketing suite add-on—which provides customer marketing tools, email marketing, campaign management, feedback requests, and interactive metrics—is available for an additional $14 per month.
ShippingEasy offers a powerful, cloud-based platform equipped with the shipping features needed to operate and scale. It comes with unlimited sales channel usage, batch support, and impressive peripheral connectivity—which helped bolster its score in this category.
It also delivers prebuilt integrations with many leading platforms, though providers offering more native integrations scored higher. We also deducted points for lacking a feature to display live rates at checkout.
Here’s an overview of the factors we considered when assessing ShippingEasy’s functionality:
ShippingEasy’s core features include order management, giving you split, combine, and recombine functions, batch processing, CSV entry, customizable grouping, manual entry and editing, gift options, and returns management. Customizable packing slips and location support for picking and packing are also included.
The software also helps with inventory management, allowing users to manage stock with real-time inventory tracking, product catalog support, product image support, customizable categories, and barcode creation.
ShippingEasy performs well when it comes to these basic components, but we found that competitors like deliver better order and inventory management with higher levels of control.
It also offers additional features to tackle more complex shipping tasks as well as marketing, which earned it points in this category. However it doesn’t come with purpose-built features for dropshipping, which brought its final score down.
Here are some of the features that set ShippingEasy apart from its competitors:
Staying true to its name, ShippingEasy is pretty easy to use. Our evaluation of the software and its reviews found that the biggest struggle it presents is its connectivity (such as integration syncing). For this reason, we deducted points in this category, but ShippingEasy maintained a decent score thanks to its high-quality user interface and user management options.
Here are the contributing factors to ShippingEasy’s overall ease of use:
Customer service hours: Support is available from 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday, and the support team is said to monitor for urgent emails over the weekends. Extended holiday support hours are typically available.
Customer service accessibility: All paid plans can access support via phone, email, and live chat. Free starter plan users are limited to an online community forum.
Reliability: ShippingEasy reviews report that the service tends to glitch, lag, or disconnect occasionally—which can complicate integrations and label printing.
User management options: Paid plan subscribers with multiple user accounts can customize user permissions at a granular level.
Insurance: ShippingEasy provides the option for discounted shipping insurance on all domestic and international parcels (valued up to $300) and advertises an easy claims process.
Returns: The platform includes returns management features that support Pay-on-Use Return (POUR) labels, which only trigger payment once they’re used.
We gave ShippingEasy high marks in our Expert Score category, taking into account its features, popularity, and overall value.
The software comes with many crucial features for ecommerce that competing providers are missing—like marketing tools and robust peripheral hardware connectivity. Plus, ShippingEasy is priced within a few dollars of generally weaker options (like OrderCup), giving it good value for the money.
It also has an impressive reputation among its users, which we consider an important indication of performance. ShippingEasy has thousands of online reviews and a very high overall rating.
All things considered, ShippingEasy is our top recommendation for small business shipping software. It has everything you need to efficiently run an in-house fulfillment operation plus an array of helpful resources to scale.
That being said, ShippingEasy’s starter plan is much more restrictive than other options. If you’re seeking free shipping software for your business, we recommend or .
Another downside is that ShippingEasy doesn’t offer a mobile app, which may pose a problem for users who need access to their shipping software on the go. and are two of our other top picks that come with a downloadable app for iOS and Android.
What Users Say in ShippingEasy Reviews
Online reviews of ShippingEasy are highly positive, especially in recent years. Most users express satisfaction with its pricing, features, and customer support. Some added that the software’s inventory management and automation capabilities are very effective, and others mentioned the savings on postage and insurance they’ve received.
A few older reviews commented on the lack of analytics capabilities, which have since been resolved.
The negative reviews of ShippingEasy are largely due to technical connectivity issues. Multiple users report trouble with integrations syncing, peripheral connections glitching, and occasional duplicate orders being created. Other reviewers state that they were charged for up to three months after ending their ShippingEasy subscription.
Capterra: 4.8 out of 5 from 1,000-plus reviews
G2: 4.6 out of 5 from about 50 reviews
Shopify App Store: 4.6 out of 5 stars from about 600 reviews
Methodology: How We Evaluated ShippingEasy
To evaluate ShippingEasy and other shipping software, we used a 28-point assessment that measures how well it meets small business shipping needs. We researched the provider through third-party reviews, user ratings, relevant articles, and the company’s own content. Then, we personally assessed ShippingEasy’s platform.
We look for high-performing functions, an intuitive interface, effective customer support, and additional features that go beyond the scope of shipping.
To find the best tool for small businesses, we prioritized economical pricing and factors that contribute to overall ease of use. Our ecommerce experts also weighed in with their assessments of each provider.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
ShippingEasy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Bottom Line
Shipping software is an immensely helpful tool for ecommerce businesses to have in their arsenal. Our #1 pick for small business shipping solutions is ShippingEasy—thanks to its economical pricing, high ease of use, impressive functionality, and deep shipping discounts.
Unless you’re seeking a free starter plan or considering outsourced fulfillment, ShippingEasy is likely the best choice for your shipping workflow. Its 30-day free trial makes it safe and simple to give it a try.
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October 14, 2022
ShipStation Review: Best Shipping Software for Scaling
ShipStation is a fulfillment and shipping platform that enables businesses to import and manage orders. It integrates with a large number of shopping carts, marketplaces, carrier accounts, and other ecommerce tools. It's available on your browser or the ShipStation mobile app.
The software's shipment management features allow users to rate-shop for the best shipping cost, and it provides discounted United States Postal Service (USPS) rates. Other services include inventory management features and automation capabilities.
In our evaluation of the best shipping software for small businesses, ShipStation came in fourth place with a score of 3.93 out of 5. It delivers robust features and excellent usability on its higher-tier plans—making it a better choice for mid- to high-volume shippers than small-scale sellers and startups.
works to streamline in-house ecommerce order fulfillment by integrating with other tools, managing orders, comparing rates, and handling the details of shipping. It features paid plans that suit a wide range of order volumes, but its upper-level plans for high-volume shippers offer a better value. The platform's robust returns management tools provide a worthwhile advantage for businesses that sell products with high return rates, such as clothing or shoes.
ShipStation doesn't offer a free starter plan and its lowest-level plan is somewhat limited. Because of this, we recommend an alternative for startups, small-scale sellers, and those seeking a free solution. It also lacks dedicated functionality for dropshipping, and it isn't the best tool for managing crowdfunding campaigns.
ShipStation Deciding Factors
*Aggregate rating based on total scores from Capterra, Shopify App Store, Trustpilot, TrustRadius, and G2.
ShipStation Alternatives
ShipStation's paid plans are priced competitively, which helped it achieve a solid score in this category. It also offers discounted shipping rates from a number of popular carriers, and a moderate range of plan options.
But unlike nearly all of its competitors, ShipStation doesn't offer a free starter plan. This inhibits accessibility for startups and low-volume operations and makes it harder for other businesses to test the platform before subscribing. However, a 30-day free trial is available for all paid plans.
offers six paid plans ranging from a minimal Starter plan to a high-volume Enterprise plan. The primary differences between each program are the number of monthly shipments, user account allowance, customer support accessibility, and branding options.
There's no contract required to use ShipStation, so you can cancel or switch plans at any time.
All accounts have an unlimited store/sales channel allowance and additional users can be added a la carte for $5 per month.
For high-volume shippers processing more than 10,000 shipments per month, custom pricing is available.
ShipStation promises to charge no additional fees outside of the subscription cost—except in the case of premium integrations, which includes Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime.
ShipStation meets nearly all of the criteria that we look for in this category, including batch support, peripheral hardware connectivity, and an unlimited sales channel allowance.
We deducted points due to ShipStation's automation capabilities, which aren't as developed as those of Ordoro or ShippingEasy. However, ShipStation users can still program "rules” to automate a decent range of shipping and fulfillment tasks. We also found that the provider's analytics tools and customer support had room for improvement.
Click below to expand on the features contributing to ShipStation's Functionality score.
ShipStation's core features include order management, providing standard features such as batch processing, comma-separated values (CSV) entry, customizable grouping, split/combine functions, and more.
It also comes with inventory management capabilities, such as catalog support, stock allocation, inventory alerts, and syncing, as well as the ability to customize labels, packing slips, outbound emails, and tracking pages.
We found that these primary features are generally robust and effective without connecting secondary tools, which earned points for ShipStation. We also awarded points for its outbound email tools, international shipping support, and order upload options. The provider was docked for lacking marketing tools—beyond branding capabilities—as well as dedicated features to support dropshipping.
ShipStation's standout features include:
ShipStation is easy to use—as long as you're on a high-tier subscription plan. This caveat significantly impacted the provider's score in our Ease of Use category.
We awarded points for its customizable user interface and device connectivity, which make the platform practical and accessible to all subscribers. But the customer service limitations on the Starter plan create substantial difficulty.
Here are the factors that play into ShipStation's ease of use:
Customer support hours: ShipStation's support staff is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central time.
Customer support accessibility: Support is available via phone for top-tier plans and via live chat for Bronze plans or higher. All other users may contact support via email or online forum. ShipStation's responsiveness to emails is very poorly rated.
User management options: For subscribers with multiple user accounts, ShipStation allows granular customization of user permissions. Primary users can set permissions based on order type or function.
User interface quality: ShipStation's desktop platform features a user-friendly interface with a customizable layout and is highly rated in reviews.
Site speed and reliability: Users report that ShipStation is occasionally slow and experiences somewhat frequent glitches, especially when connecting other apps or hardware.
Ultimately, we like ShipStation's wide range of robust features, but struggle with its popularity, ease of use, and overall value, which earned the provider a moderate score in this category.
ShipStation delivers a well-developed platform with helpful features to facilitate standard day-to-day tasks. Its unique returns management tool is especially notable for its ability to help business owners and impact customer experience directly.
But the provider has garnered an alarming amount of negative feedback, with most of its bad reviews coming from users on low-level plans. Its restrictive plan limitations compromise ease of use for startups and small-scale sellers, which harms its overall value.
All things considered, we recommend checking out an alternative like ShippingEasy unless you're seeking a high-level subscription plan.
What Users Say in ShipStation Reviews
ShipStation's overall ratings are high across most app stores and software review sites. The company's mobile app has a positive score as well, with more than 50,000 downloads on Google Play.
Many favorable reviews mention ShipStation's functional interface and plentiful integrations. Reviewers frequently cite using the software to ship 200-plus orders per day—making it clear that ShipStation is highly effective for midsize companies.
Multiple reviews state that the platform is "great when it works and support isn't needed." Customer service is a consistent pain point across neutral and negative reviews from starter-level subscribers.
While the software has an abundance of positive ratings, the negative feedback is deeply opinionated and much of it has been left in recent months. Dissatisfied users report the web app being glitchy and slow with frequent bugs, and technical support maintaining a dismissive attitude toward the issues.
Other negative reviews describe the platform as a "nightmare" for accountants. These users report missing functionality from certain key accounting integrations, such as the ability to work freely with order data points and enable automations.
Capterra: 4.7/5 from 800-plus reviews
Shopify App Store: 4.1/5 from some 630 reviews
G2: 4.3/5 from more than 180 reviews
Trustpilot: 2.5/5 from about 150 reviews
Methodology: How We Evaluated ShipStation
To evaluate ShipStation and other shipping software, we used a 28-point assessment that measures how well it meets small business shipping needs. We researched the provider through third-party reviews, user ratings, relevant articles, and the company's own content. Then, we personally assessed ShipStation's platform.
We look for high-performing functions, an intuitive interface, effective customer support, and additional features that go beyond the scope of shipping.
To find the best tool for small businesses, we prioritized economical pricing and factors that contribute to overall ease of use. Our ecommerce experts also weighed in with their assessments of each provider.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
ShipStation FAQs
Bottom Line
Shipping software is a necessity for ecommerce businesses, especially those performing fulfillment in-house.
ShipStation is a powerful tool for managing shipments, orders, and inventory, but it's a better choice for mid- to high-volume shippers than small-scale sellers and startups.
For sellers with low sales volume, we recommend ShippingEasy. But if you're shipping at least 500 or more orders per month, ShipStation's Bronze plan (or higher) is a worthy investment.
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October 14, 2022
Ordoro Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
Ordoro is a shipping software platform built to optimize order fulfillment, multichannel inventory management, and dropshipping. It integrates with leading ecommerce platforms, marketplaces, and tools and offers direct connectivity with vendors. It also helps sellers manage in-house shipments through discounted rates, automated label creation, and a multicarrier rate comparison tool.
In our evaluation of the best shipping software for small businesses, Ordoro ranked No. 2 with a 4.04 out of 5. It delivers robust inventory and order management features that outperform the competition, as well as an impressively high-volume starter plan. But many of its features are only accessible from higher-tier plans, making it best for mid-volume businesses.
is packed with features for dropshippers, multichannel sellers, and midsize companies. Its platform comes with unlimited account access for large teams and advanced automation capabilities to make fulfillment as hands-off as possible, plus standard shipping management tools. It supports multichannel sales through integrations with most ecommerce platforms, tools, and marketplaces—around 340—and allows unlimited sales channel usage.
Although it’s a powerful multichannel tool, Ordoro restricts the number of sales channels each account can use. Express plan subscribers can use only two channels, and adding additional channels increases the already steep cost. Plus, its direct integrations are very limited. If your store is experimenting with expanding to new sales channels, is a better choice.
Ordoro has some affordable plan options, but many of its features are only available on its pricey, high-tier programs. If you’re on a tight fulfillment budget but still want access to inventory and order management tools, we recommend .
Ordoro Deciding Factors
*Aggregate rating based on total scores from Capterra, Shopify App Store, Facebook, TrustRadius, and G2.
Ordoro Alternatives
Ordoro earned a perfect score in our pricing category thanks to its competitively priced Express plan, helpful carrier discounts, and unique “flex pricing” feature. It also offers an impressive free starter plan with a 1,000-shipment allowance, which is significantly higher than its competitors’ free plans.
The following is a rundown of Ordoro’s plan options.
Ordoro Plans
Ordoro offers a free starter and three paid plans, ranging from an Express plan for midsize shippers to a customizable, high-volume Enterprise plan. A 15-day free trial is available to test out any of the paid plans before subscribing.
Unlike most competing shipping solutions, all Ordoro accounts receive an unlimited user and warehouse allowance. However, subscribers are restricted to a set number of sales channels, but additional channels can be added for a monthly cost ranging from $10 to $50, depending on the plan level.
As an Ordoro user, your account is based on one of the three established tiers, but the company’s Flex Pricing billing system monitors your monthly order volume and makes automatic adjustments to your charges without changing your subscription tier. This means you’ll pay more during months that your order volume is high, and less during months that your sales are low.
This billing structure is much more customer-friendly than the other providers on our list, all of which will upgrade your account to the next plan tier automatically if you go over your monthly shipment allowance. It also ensures that mid-volume shippers can grow on Ordoro’s Express plan quite a bit before needing to switch to the $499 per month Pro plan.
Unlike our other top picks, the differences between each plan come down to much more than shipment allowance and customer service accessibility. The features and add-ons for each program differ greatly and appeal to different models of businesses.
Here’s an overview of each plan.
As mentioned above, Ordoro’s low-tier plan options aren’t very functional since many features are only available on its pricier programs. This cost it significant points in this category, along with its limited sales channel allowance.
Meanwhile, Ordoro offers helpful peripheral connectivity, excellent automation capabilities, and a powerful platform, which helped bolster its score.
Here’s an overview of the factors we considered when assessing Ordoro’s functionality.
Ordoro’s core features include order management, allowing users to manage returns, view orders from all sales channels from the dashboard, and access built-in address validation and barcode scanning.
This core function—along with many others—outperform Ordoro’s competitors, which helped it achieve a high score for the category. We also awarded points for the light marketing features available on the platform, such as the ability to customize branded labels, packing slips, outbound emails, and tracking pages.
Here are some of the additional features that set Ordoro apart from its competitors.
Ordoro is pleasantly easy to use, which is an impressive feat considering its complex range of functions.
A small number of reviewers mentioned having slight difficulty with the software’s user interface and printer connectivity. But in our evaluation, the platform held up well.
Here are the contributing factors to Ordoro’s ease of use:
Customer service hours: Support from Ordoro’s Austin customer service team is available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central time Monday through Friday, with limited email support on weekends.
Customer service accessibility: Starter plan users can contact support via email and online forum for API topics. Users on the Express plan and higher receive phone support.
User interface (UI): Ordoro’s UI is mildly criticized in customer reviews, and syncing is performed once per hour. The platform’s rate comparison feature is not as accessible as competing software.
User management options: Paid plan subscribers with multiple user accounts can customize user permissions to restrict actions involving products, purchase orders, analytics, general settings, and admin settings.
Insurance: Ordoro provides the option for discounted shipping insurance on domestic and international parcels through InsureShip.
Returns: The platform includes returns management features to create and track RMAs, email return labels to customers, and receive and restock items. Returns management is available on the Pro plan and higher.
We gave Ordoro a high score in this category, considering its impressive popularity and ease of use. We also awarded points for its well-built features, which are robust enough potentially to replace other tools in your ecommerce arsenal.
This creates a significant advantage for complex operations and mid- to high-volume sellers, but Ordoro doesn’t hold the same value for simpler shipping needs.
Its restrictive Starter and Express plans don’t provide the inventory and order management features that many businesses need, but Ordoro’s more complete plans may be too pricey for smaller operations.
Ultimately, Ordoro’s high-tier plans deliver an outstanding shipping solution that’s well worth the cost if it suits your needs. But if you’re seeking a simpler and more economical tool, we recommend considering or .
What Users Say in Ordoro Reviews
Online reviews for Ordoro are overwhelmingly positive. It’s nearly impossible to find a blatantly negative rating, and the cons mentioned by users are all expressed as being minor issues.
Many reviewers state that the platform works beautifully with their 3PL fulfillment services, which allowed them to scale easily. Others mention that they switched from more simplistic shipping solutions and appreciate Ordoro’s robust inventory management system.
Customer support is a recurring point in Ordoro’s online reviews. Users are pleased with the level of friendliness and efficiency they’re met with when talking to the customer service staff, even going as far as to state that “they actually listen” and “really care about making a great product.”
One review expresses disappointment in the limitations for resellers. Others mention running into difficulty with the interface and hardware connectivity. A common complaint was Ordoro’s multichannel syncing, which occurs only once every hour and can cause stock problems.
Capterra: 4.8 out of 5 stars from about 75 reviews
G2: 4.7 out of 5 stars from nearly 10 reviews
Shopify App Store: 4.8 out of 5 stars from 80-plus reviews
Methodology: How We Evaluated Ordoro
To evaluate Ordoro and other shipping software, we used a 28-point assessment that measures how well it meets small business shipping needs. We researched the provider through third-party reviews, user ratings, relevant articles, and the company’s own content. Then, we personally assessed Ordoro’s platform.
We look for high-performing functions, an intuitive interface, effective customer support, and additional features that go beyond the scope of shipping.
To find the best tool for small businesses, we prioritized economical pricing and factors that contribute to overall ease of use. Our ecommerce experts also weighed in with their assessments of each provider.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
Ordoro FAQs
Bottom Line
Ordoro’s warehouse options, vendor connectivity, and unlimited user allowance make it a great fit for midsize companies and dropshippers. Its impressively high-volume free starter plan is a unique offering that can help businesses scale on a tight budget.
But the platform’s expensive subscription fees and limited features on low-tier plans make it a poor choice for low-volume sellers and simple shipping needs. You can try Ordoro free for 15 days to see if it's right for you.
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October 14, 2022
OrderCup Review: Shipping Software for Ecommerce Beginners
OrderCup is web-based shipping software that integrates with ecommerce platforms and shopping carts to streamline order fulfillment and shipping. It’s designed for small to midsize businesses (SMBs) with plans ranging from free to $180 per month.
In our evaluation of the best shipping software for small businesses, OrderCup ranked No. 5 with a score of 3.89 out of 5. It earned points for its international shipping capabilities, discounted rates, and exceptional customer service, but its rudimentary features make it better for ecommerce newcomers than complex operations.
offers a solid free plan for low-volume shippers that makes it accessible to businesses sticking to a tight fulfillment budget. It also provides industry-leading customer support with affordable setup and consulting services, making it a good fit for ecommerce beginners new to shipping. For international sellers, OrderCup supports shipping with its core carriers from a wide range of global origins, plus better discounts from UK Mail and DX than its competitors.
Functions such as email marketing, inventory management, and setting user permissions are very rudimentary on OrderCup’s platform, so it’s not an effective multipurpose tool and may be a poor fit for complex or high-volume operations. Fast-growing businesses may also want to seek an alternative due to OrderCup’s restrictive list of native integrations and lack of an application programming interface (API).
OrderCup Deciding Factors
*Aggregate rating based on total scores from Capterra, Shopify App Store, BigCommerce App Store, and Webretailer.
OrderCup Alternatives
We gave OrderCup high marks in this category thanks to its well-built free plan, competitive pricing, and helpful shipping discounts. But its narrow range of plan options may leave users paying for resources they don’t need, which brought its score down slightly.
The main differences between each OrderCup plan are the number of monthly shipments and user account allowance, but certain features are only available to mid- and high-level subscribers.
A 30-day free trial is available for all paid plans, and it provides users with unrestricted functionality. No credit card is required to sign up for a trial.
There’s no contract required to use OrderCup, and plans can be canceled, upgraded, or downgraded at any time. If you change your plan level mid-month, you will be credited or charged a prorated amount.
Subscribers on all plans, including the free plan, can use unlimited sales channels and other integrations.
Customer service is available via email, live chat, screen sharing, forum, and phone support for all paid plans. Free plan users are limited to email and forum support, but reviews for these lower-level services are still favorable.
Premium Support is offered as a $50/month add-on, and it’s a worthy investment for users managing complicated shipments―like cross-border exports―ecommerce beginners, and global sellers.
The add-on gives you unlimited toll-free phone support and priority handling for your service tickets. Premium support is included in the top-tier Trenta plan.
An Initial Setup and Consultation Package is available for $150, which buys complete setup and configuration of your OrderCup account from staff experts. The package includes an hour of consultation or training on software usage and shipping best practices.
OrderCup delivers sufficient functionality to power a simple operation. It earned points for this category for its peripheral connectivity, batch support, and unlimited channel allowance.
But unlike and , it’s not cloud-based and doesn’t come with a mobile app, which could hinder complex operations. It also offers the least number of native integrations out of all the providers on our list, and its automation capabilities have room for improvement. Overall, it earned a score of 3.04 out of 5.
The following are the factors we considered when evaluating OrderCup’s functionality.
OrderCup’s core features include order management, providing basic features, such as batch processing, CSV entry, manual entry and editing, returns management, reporting and analytics, and more.
It also comes with inventory management capabilities, allowing you to manage your stock through OrderCup’s product catalog support with warehouse assignment options and automatic syncing with multiple channels.
Email marketing features, such as the ability to send and automate branded outgoing emails, packing slips, and tracking notifications are also available, but some functionality is limited on the free and Short plans.
We found that these core features perform moderately well on OrderCup’s platform, but competitors like and handled them better. OrderCup scored points in this category for its international shipping support and data import options but was docked for its weak reporting capabilities and lack of dropshipping functions.
The following are some of OrderCup’s standout features:
Through user reviews, research, and hands-on experience with the software, we found that OrderCup is very easy to use. This is largely due to its customer service, which is the best in its class.
Other contributing factors, such as its knowledge base and company website, aren’t as developed as those of other shipping solutions. But we found that these drawbacks don’t greatly impact the software’s usability.
Here’s an overview of the factors that contribute to OrderCup’s ease of use:
Customer service hours: Support is available in North America from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time seven days per week except on US public holidays. In Europe, it is available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Greenwich Mean time (GMT) seven days per week except on UK public holidays.
Customer service accessibility: All paid plans can access support via phone, email, and live chat. Free starter plan users are limited to an online community forum.
User interface: OrderCup delivers a simple interface with a variety of customizable layout options. It features a responsive design that works well on a range of devices and collapsible panels on key pages to improve usability.
User management options: Paid plan subscribers with multiple user accounts can customize user permissions, although options are not as granular as some competitors. Some permissions features are only available on the Tall plan or higher.
Insurance: OrderCup provides the option for discounted shipping insurance on domestic and international parcels through InsureShip.
Returns: The platform includes returns management features that support on-demand return labels sent via email as well as auto-return labels that are included in the shipment. OrderCup also supports POUR labels, which only trigger payment once they’re used.
OrderCup is a solid, entry-level solution for small-scale sellers, but it lacks the features that more complex operations may need. For this reason, we gave it an Expert Score of 3.75 out of 5.
Although many of its features are lacking, OrderCup comes at an affordable price and offers a well-built free plan. Although it isn’t much cheaper than competing options, its excellent customer support and beginner-friendly usability give OrderCup unique value for ecommerce newcomers.
It also earned points in this category for its high popularity among its users, which is a good indicator of overall performance.
OrderCup was docked here for its lackluster features and inability to scale with fast-growing businesses. If you’re seeking a more robust shipping solution that can tackle multiple functions efficiently, we recommend . For a budget-friendly plan with better integrations than OrderCup, check out .
What Users Say in OrderCup Reviews
Since it’s a smaller company, online ratings of OrderCup are scarce on traditional software review websites like Capterra and G2.
Ecommerce platform app stores have the most insight from OrderCup users, and reviews are overwhelmingly positive.
Many reviewers mention switching to the software from one of the “bigger” shipping solutions due to the lack of customer support and being pleasantly surprised by the stark difference in service. High-quality support is a common theme across nearly all OrderCup reviews, with many users stating that they receive fast, personalized responses to even the most challenging issues.
A handful of ratings describe the software as “straightforward” and “clunky,” but some reviewers explain that the interface is highly customizable.
Most of the negative OrderCup reviews were left between 2011 and 2014. These ratings describe problems with support contact methods, Chrome compatibility, Mac compatibility, and server issues, all of which have now been resolved. Some of these reviews also mention persistent issues with OrderCup’s batch feature.
More recent negative ratings stem from the software being too simplistic and lacking features found in competing shipping solutions:
Shopify App Store: 4.8/5 from 300-plus reviews
BigCommerce App Store: 4.78/5 from nearly 20 reviews
Capterra: 4/5 from just a handful of reviews
Methodology: How We Evaluated OrderCup
To evaluate OrderCup and other shipping software, we used a 28-point assessment that measures how well it meets small business shipping needs. We researched the provider through third-party reviews, user ratings, relevant articles, and the company’s own content. Then, we personally assessed OrderCup’s platform.
We look for high-performing functions, an intuitive interface, effective customer support, and additional features that go beyond the scope of shipping.
To find the best tool for small businesses, we prioritized economical pricing and factors that contribute to overall ease of use. Our ecommerce experts also weighed in with their assessments of each provider.
Click through the tabs below for our full evaluation criteria:
Bottom Line
OrderCup is a solid shipping management tool that can save small businesses and startups a significant amount of time and money, but it may be too rudimentary for complex operations.
The software is an excellent pick for ecommerce newcomers, businesses on a budget, global retailers, and international shippers. But due to its lack of direct integrations and other features, it’s a poor choice for rapidly growing businesses.
If you manage fewer than 50 shipments per month, OrderCup’s free plan is a necessity. As you scale, other solutions may be a better fit, but OrderCup offers a 30-day free trial on any of its paid plans, so you can test it at any stage risk-free.
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