ShipMonk

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations for a digital home decorating company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ShipMonk?

We used to mail our own items out, but it wasn’t worth it to hire staff, store inventory, and maintain our own mailing space as we scaled. We initially engaged a different e-commerce warehouse but needed to replace them due to many errors and a lack of communication. We wanted a warehouse that could provide more consistent service and support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ShipMonk integrates with our Shopify store to ship out our orders. Some orders include lithium batteries, which they have no problem shipping.

What is the team composition?

We work with one primary point of contact, a happiness engineer.  We’ve worked with 6–7 points of contact since beginning our relationship with ShipMonk. 

How did you come to work with ShipMonk? 

Our former director of operations found ShipMonk and identified them as the best service provider to meet our needs. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $1.1 million in the partnership with ShipMonk.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our company has been working with ShipMonk since May 2018, and I’ve been managing the ongoing partnership since 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We measure success based on customer satisfaction and track our customers’ shipping complaints. ShipMonk provides us with real-time inventory and data analytics via their website, which has built-in reporting capabilities. The reporting shows us how many packages make the service-level agreement (SLA) on their deliveries. 

How did ShipMonk perform from a project management standpoint?

Our relationship with the happiness engineer is generally quite positive, but when we have special projects that require additional staff, ShipMonk’s process is disorganized, and communication is poor. For example, we faced issues with stock availability during the onboarding process. 

We’ve frequently seen major communication issues between off-site engineers and warehouse staff that have led to big mistakes. Recently, they lost thousands of dollars worth of merchandise due to errors made by staff. It turned out that the inventory was there, but the staff had marked off the wrong paperwork. 

We used to work with an engineer who was based in Florida, but ShipMonk recently assigned us someone who is based closer to our warehouse in California, which has been a huge improvement. We meet regularly via Google Meet and use email to communicate. They also provide us with limited phone access. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

ShipMonk’s biggest strength is their willingness to make investments and SLA process improvements that have garnered trackable results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

ShipMonk could improve by providing more robust documentation and working on their internal communication. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

ShipMonk is better for companies that sell smaller, lightweight items with low shipping costs. They’re not good at supporting companies with large, heavy items that require expensive shipping. They don’t integrate with Shopify to provide shipping rates, so it’s up to you to figure out how to charge your shipping. If you don’t get the shipping calculations correct, you could end up overcharging or undercharging your customers.