James Messer

Selling and shipping physical media is usually pretty straightforward. However, talk to any record sellers and you quickly know which one requires the most care. Knowing how to ship vinyl records is a skill that every record store, dealer, or label has to learn. They require a little bit more care than other media do. […]

Urban Native Era was started by Joey Montoya (Lipan Apache) in 2012 as a social movement to increase visibility of Indigenous People through social media. When he started capturing the Idle No More protests, Montoya was able to expand the cause’s vision. When he launched UNE’s first line of tshirts in 2013 to broaden their […]

The USPS is frequently considered the gold standard for national carriers. Many merchants across the world find shipping to the US to be a breeze because of how well our postal service deals with delivering parcels. Additionally, the USPS has built up a delivery network with other national carriers and international carriers like DHL to […]

Billing adjustments can be a shock at the end of the month. Luckily there are ways to minimize and avoid them. Find out how for UPS, USPS, and FedEx here.

Finding a place to drop off your parcels can be easy—so long as you already have a label printed! If you haven’t printed the label, you’re going to need to head to a carrier facility or a self-service kiosk to get one printed. You can also use a program like Shipbot to print a label […]

Ecommerce has the capacity to make our shopping habits greener. When we have items delivered to us instead of us driving around to stores, it minimizes our carbon footprint. With the omnipresence of ecommerce, you may end up getting a different package delivered every day. Sometimes multiple packages a day! During lockdown with people shopping […]

Harmony Harvest is a flower farm that grows more than flowers. They have recently grown into a booming ecommerce company. Owner Stephanie Duncan —who joins us in this month’s episode—along with her mother and sister are the women behind the bouquets. Based in Virginia’s Shenendoah Valley, they control the entire business process from growing, to […]

ShipStation’s core mission is to make ecommerce simpler for growing merchants. That’s why we’re happy to announce that we are starting a podcast called Get Ship Done. In this podcast, our host, J.B. Hager will interview successful ecommerce business owners to uncover valuable insight that you can use to become a more impactful ecommerce merchant. […]

Merchants typically look at shipping as a necessary evil: It cuts into your profit margins and you just have to deal with it. Yes, shipping costs money. But there are many ways to make fulfillment more affordable if you know what to look for. Sometimes, merchants make assumptions about which services are the most affordable. […]

Starting April 3, 2022, the United States Postal Service is introducing surcharges for oversized packages with sides over 20” or 30.” These surcharges were announced as part of USPS’s 2022 rate increases in January as part of their annual rate increase. These surcharges are part of USPS’s recent measures to help deal with the large […]

As demand for quicker shipping times become standard, the most urgent of shipping needs have become more commonplace. Next-day delivery is a popular option for many items now. It’s not just for ice cream or medical supplies anymore. As merchants adapt to the evolving ecommerce landscape, having a plan for dealing with express delivery is […]

With so many links in a supply chain, all the pieces have to fit together to keep global commerce running smoothly. If there are disruptions, products may not reach your customers. A delay or bottleneck at one place can cause massive disruptions everywhere else. For a while, merchants were able to buy new inventory or […]

Running an ecommerce business means dealing with carriers. Logging into different carrier accounts to buy and print postage can become tedious though. And the only thing worse than having to print postage in all your different carriers’ interfaces is having to drop of packages at the post office or carrier facility. Luckily, ShipStation makes all […]

China is the US’s third largest trade partner, behind Canada and Mexico. Beyond manufacturing in China and their place as a central figure in world economics, there is a big demand for American goods in China and vice versa. As with any international market, China has its own set of rules and regulations regarding what […]

If you sell on Shopify, you already know the importance of an efficient shipping workflow. With ShipStation, you can take utilize a great shipping software that lets you fulfill all of your orders regardless of where they were placed! With integrations to over 100 of the world’s top-selling channels, marketplaces, ERPs, and CRMs, you can […]

If you sell on Shopify, you already know the importance of a good shipping workflow. Shopify Shipping is a great tool for fulfilling your Shopify orders. However, having the same amount of features available for shipping all of your ecommerce orders is crucial. Luckily, ShipStation gives you discounted shipping rates and integrations to over 100 […]

Finding the best shipping options for shipping your parcels domestically or internationally doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, once you figure out which services work best for local deliveries, shipments heading across Canada, or crossborder, you’ll be able to develop a workflow of automatically selecting the best carrier service and package type for each […]

Shipping books doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. But you do need to make sure that you are shipping books correctly. Books are heavy and if you’re not careful, they can jostle loose and tear open boxes. This can cause headaches for postal facilities, as well as damages and additional fees to return the […]

Shipping can be expensive. In this guide, we offer tips & solutions that show you how to save money on shipping, order fulfillment, & packaging.

Shipping is not without its share of unknowns. Lost and damaged products are something any ecommerce business has to worry about and will eventually confront. Dealing with this process with customers that may live on the other side of the planet can be challenging, but there are (luckily!) ways to make it simpler.  Why Packages […]

Shipping can be expensive. It can be time-consuming. Managing your carrier accounts alongside your selling channels can also be a headache. Simplifying how you select a carrier service for your different orders doesn’t have to be difficult. Because our major goal is to let you manage the shipment of all your orders, ShipStation Carrier Services […]

Starting January 28th, 2022, the USPS will suspend Priority Mail International shipments with a destination address within China. This will impact all non-military or diplomatic USPS Priority Mail International mailpieces destined for China.  For Priority Mail items that entered the mailstream prior to 1/28/22, the Postal Service will transport them to their destination. However, delays […]

The USPS has raised rates as of January 9th, 2022.

As the holiday season comes to an end, we get ready for the new year. But ecommerce merchants have one last bit of business to clear up before moving fully into the new year: Holiday Returns. As unpleasant as dealing with returns can be, there is a silver lining. Customers that experience a good returns […]