Everything You Need to Know about Shipbob Pricing
In this guide to Shipbob pricing, we’re going to cover everything you need to know about the costs you’ll incur when using Shipbob for order fulfillment.
Shipbob has a lot of great benefits to offer as a fulfillment leader, from global distribution centers to phenomenal customer support.
Unfortunately, understanding exactly how much you’re going to pay for Shipbob’s fulfillment services can be a little complicated. Similar to many fulfillment leaders, Shipbob doesn’t provide a comprehensive pricing page with specific monthly fees for each company.
Instead, the prices you can expect to pay for your services will depend on a variety of factors, from where your customers are located, to the exact support you need.
Here’s everything you need to know about the costs of Shipbob.
Table of contents:
An Introduction to Shipbob Pricing
Let’s start with the basics. Shipbob claims to offer a fully transparent and customized pricing package for each customer, relevant to their specific needs.
As the pricing page on the website states, the prices you’ll pay are “reflective of a total fulfillment cost”. In other words, you’ll get a complete pricing rundown which covers everything from the cost of Shipbob receiving your inventory, the prices for warehousing and shipping each order.
To get a comprehensive quote, you’ll need to fill out a contact form on the Shipbob website, and connect with a sales representative, who’ll ask about your specific needs, from kitting, to packaging requirements.
Notably, the price you pay will vary depending on factors like shipping and packaging requests. However, the analytics tools, technology, and software integrations offered by Shipbob all come with no extra costs.
Let’s take a closer look at the costs associated with Shipbob fulfillment.
Shipbob Implementation and Software Fees
First, the software available for Shipbob, which allows you to manage your orders, track your inventory, access useful reporting tools and more, is all available for free.
You don’t pay any monthly subscription fees for the software or dashboards themselves. You’ll also be able to access integrations between Shipbob and popular tools for free.
Shipbob integrates with leading ecommerce platforms like Square, Shopify, WooCommerce (WordPress), Squarespace, BigCommerce, Magento, and Wix, as well as marketplaces like Walmart, Amazon and Ebay.
You’ll also get dedicated support from the Shipbob team across a variety of fulfillment locations. However, if you want assistance implementing your new technology and getting everything set up, there is a fee.
There’s a fixed, one-time fee for implementation and integration, which varies depending on the complexity of your store. However, it’s worth noting that there is a Startup plan available, intended for companies with less than 400 orders per month to manage.
This plan incurs no implementation fees, and is offered on a self-service basis. While you won’t pay anything for implementation, you will be required to onboard yourself, which can be time-consuming and complicated.
Shipbob Receiving and Storage Fees
As a fulfillment and warehousing company, Shipbob can take over the task of managing and storing your inventory for you. The price for “receiving” your items, and storing them is calculated on a per customer basis, as part of the overall cost of working with Shipbob on a monthly basis.
Receiving fees include the cost of verifying inventory counts, checking the condition of goods, and processing and storing items on your behalf.
Storage fees involve making sure your items are securely and safely stored in a location close to your intended audience. These rates are often given on a monthly basis, depending on your needs.
Shipbob charges receiving fees on an hourly basis, which means you pay for the amount of time Shipbob’s experts spend processing your goods.
The first two hours cost $25 each, while every hour after that will cost another $40. For storage and warehousing, Shipbob follows a similar strategy to most warehousing companies, charging based on the amount of space your products take up, and the length of time they’re held in a warehouse.
Each month, you’ll pay around $10 per shelf (7.1 cubic feet), $5 per bin (.77 cubic feet), and $40 per pallet (60 cubic feet). Notably, Shipbob can fulfil larger B2B and wholesale orders, at an additional cost.
The extra fee includes labelling, pallet preparation, freight quotes, and additional support. Again, the fee for this is calculated individually for each customer.
Shipbob Picking and Packaging Costs
Unlike most fulfillment centers, Shipbob allows ecommerce businesses to leverage picking and packaging support without paying anything extra.
The costs for this service are rolled up into the total monthly costs associated with your account. The first four picks are offered at $0, but there is a $0.20 for every picked order after that.
Packaging, on the other hand, is free for standard packaging. There are a handful of box options to choose from, depending on your specific products and needs. Shipbob allows business owners to use their own custom mailers, branded boxes, and inserts.
However, you will be required to pay for the costs of storing these items, just as you’ll pay for warehousing your ecommerce items. This could mean you end up paying extra for your service overall.
To insert marketing materials into your parcels, such as a promotional slip, or a voucher, you’ll pay additional custom packaging costs. The price is free for up to the first 4 units, and $0.20 after this. You can check the pack fees for mailers and other customization options in your Shipbob account.
Shipbob Kitting Fees
Notably, Shipbob can also offer “kitting” services. After your account and products have been approved by the Shipbob team, the fulfillment associates connected to the company can perform a full kitting service on your behalf.
This basically mean the team adapts their services to ensure you get the best results, according to how you want to ship items to customers.
Kitting services are ideal for business leaders who sell products that need to be assembled or managed in some way before they’re sent out to customers.
For example, if you’re offering a direct-to-consumer subscription box service on your online store, Shipbob can put all the items together for your subscription service in the same box on your behalf.
Since the cost of the custom packaging service can vary for each business, you’ll need to request a custom quote to ship orders with kitting services included. Some common costs include:
- Picking fees: $0.07 per SKU
- Change product SKU to kit SKU: $0.02
- Construct packaging: $0.56
- Perform inspection: $0.21
- Close packaging: $0.04
- Seal an item: $0.08
- Place item in box: $0.10
- Construct insert or divider: $0.28
- Pack item using Shipbob packaging: $0.15
- Wrap item: $0.28
- Affix sticker, barcode, or label: $0.21
- Add paper dunnage: $0.11
- Position sticker in a specific location: $0.07
- Remove item from a package: $0.21
- Remove insert or packaging: $0.28
Shipbob Shipping Fees
One point worth noting if you’re considering using Shipbob for fulfillment, is the company does have an excellent global presence.
Shipbob can ship orders to over 220 territories and countries, and quotes for international shipping are often offered on a per request basis.
Shipbob also has fulfillment centers located in Australia, Canada, the United States, Europe, and the UK.
If you use Shipbob for both fulfillment and warehouse management, you can work with the customer service team to ensure your products are located in environments closest to your customer. This is a great way to ensure orders from your online store are shipped as quickly as possible.
Shipping costs and services vary depending on your location, and the location of your customers. However, Shipbob has negotiated bulk discounts with leading companies like:
- Royal Mail in the UK
- DPD
- UPS
- USPS
- DHL
- FedEx
This means you should be able to access low-cost international and national rates across different service levels.
Of course, shipping costs are naturally variable in nature, depending on the service you request, such as 2-day shipping, as well as the weight and dimensions of your items, and the product’s destinations.
Shipbob offers customized quotes designed to give you the best rates possible. There are also options for batch-able orders. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see the full costs of shipping until you sign up for a Shipbob account and start entering product and customer details.
Shipbob Return Fees
For any ecommerce business, there’s always a chance your customers might need to return some of the items they order. Shipbob offers quality checks to improve the chances of your customers being happy with their items, but this doesn’t eliminate the need for returns completely.
Shipbob does offer returns management as one of their many services included with fulfilment and warehousing support.
However, there’s an extra processing fee included for every return Shipbob needs to handle on your behalf. This fee includes the cost of processing any items in the return.
Crucially, you’ll only pay this fee when a product physically arrives back at one of Shipbob’s fulfilment centers. Additionally, you can buy additional labels for returns through Shipbob, at an additional cost. These labels are offered with a discounted price compared to purchasing labels directly from a shipping provider.
In general, return fees start at around $3 per return, but the cost will vary depending on the number of items being returned, and other factors. You can also ask customers to purchase their return labels themselves, although this might harm the overall customer experience.
Shipbob: Customer Service Costs
When working with any fulfillment provider, it’s important to ensure you’re going to get an excellent quality of service every step of the way. Many Shipbob reviews suggest the customer support from this company is excellent, particularly for ecommerce brands who need a lot of help.
As mentioned above, there are certain costs associated with implementing your Shipbob services, accessing solutions like the Shipbob API, and connecting your software to your ecommerce stores. However, overall, Shipbob doesn’t charge extra for various forms of customer service.
If you access the complete fulfillment solution from Shipbob, support and guidance are included in the package. However, if you choose the “Startup” package offered by Shipbob, you’ll be expected to handle most things yourself, including onboarding and setting up your technology.
You won’t get a dedicated account representative to work with on this plan. Fortunately, there is still support available through live chat (during office hours) and email.
Additional Costs and Fees
Shipbob prides itself on delivering a transparent fulfillment network solution with no hidden fees. The FAQs on the platform do offer plenty of guidance to help you determine how much you’re likely to pay for your service.
However, it’s worth noting that you won’t have the easiest time figuring out your costs until you sign up for an account and speak to a sales rep.
Though extra fees charged by Shipbob aren’t exactly hidden, they’re not as clear as they could be on the website. If you have specific needs, you may have additional costs to pay.
You’ll need to take some time to sort through all of the “additional fees” connected to your account for things like FBA prep, shipping B2B orders, and accessing custom developer support.
Fortunately, if you do have any specific questions about costs, Shipbob’s team will be on-hand to help guide you through the process of setting up your account.
Shipbob Pricing: Final Verdict
Overall, if you’re looking for an international fulfillment company to help you master the process of shipping products to customers, Shipbob is an excellent solution.
The company offers some fantastic features, such as options for two-day shipping, discount shipping labels, and an amazing global fulfillment network.
Shipbob’s software, which allows small business owners to sort through shipping options, customize the unboxing experience for customers, and track order management details is free to use across all plans (though there is an implementation fee).
Additionally, Shipbob can help you to automate a lot of your processes, and reduce the costs of in-house fulfillment. Unfortunately, the pricing structure for the company can be a little complex to understand at first.
You’ll need to speak to Shipbob and discuss all of your specific needs before you sign up for the service, to get a full idea of how much you can expect to pay.
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