Unlocking International Shipping

I am the co-founder of Easyship — an online platform that simplifies international shipping for SMEs selling online.

We are almost 2 years in the making, and up to now the journey has been amazing! International shipping was the last barrier standing for SMEs to go global, eCommerce platform led the way with Amazon and eBay, payment followed with Paypal and Stripe, but international shipping felt like it was still left behind.

Together with my co-founder Tommaso, we came to Hong Kong and were in charge of regional marketplace expansion and operations for Lazada, a leading Southeast Asia’s eCommerce company that is now valued at $2 billion USD. As founding members of the cross-border division, we encountered daily hassles in: international shipping, time spent on finding optimal couriers, endless paperwork to complete and understanding taxes, duties, terms and conditions down to the last fine print.

Our experience gave us deep knowledge in global logistics. Rather than seeing it as a problem, we saw enormous potential on the flip side to find the ultimate solution: Easyship, an online platform providing streamlined logistics and fulfillment services for eCommerce sellers, SMEs and even crowdfunding projects from Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

Hong Kong was a clear winning location to start our business as a world-class logistics hub and heart of global trade and commerce. In our earliest months, we started with a simple platform for merchants to create orders and organized a functional fulfillment center from where we packed and shipped daily offering competitive rates.

Easyship is now a fully integrated, cloud-based platform with a shipping algorithm which allows clients to:

• Instantly compare and choose from over 100 global logistics companies with clear visibility on delivery times,
• estimate taxes and duties to get a detailed cost break down,
• auto-generate necessary documents with pre-filled information,
• track orders all on our dashboard with just a few clicks.

As foreigners in a new country, we did not only face challenges around bootstrapping a startup, but also in a lack of established local connections and cultural barriers. We were always racing against time to build our product, making sure it satisfies the needs of our customers.

Looking back, we have achieved some major milestones — secured funds from major VCs and angels, joined a top accelerator, won an award for best tech startup in Asia, being recognized by global entrepreneur communities like Inc.com and now expanding internationally.

What keeps us going is to see our clients’ business grow thanks to our product. Yet, the most rewarding part is to see how we created an intellectually stimulating environment with great talent that work together making this company grow on a daily basis.

Stripe has been a key partner enabling our success with smooth payment processing. We started with Paypal, but soon included Stripe for a neat, user-friendly yet powerful solution with a strong API for quick integration, compatible with global credit card payments, backed by great security practices and customer support. Thanks to Stripe, we are able to track and manage our financial transactions more easily while keeping customers happy.

It’s a truly exciting time for Easyship as we expand internationally — our growth has just begun, and Stripe will continue to play an important role as our global payment partner. Together, we’ll empower many more SMEs selling online internationally as the ecommerce boom continues.

To know more about Easyship, www.easyship.com

Cheers

Augustin