Stephen Inoue
@riptide360
Hi Shippn!
Here's a quick brain dump on some issues you are probably already aware of and will most likely run into.
Have you put much thought into how credit card companies deal with shipping to addresses that aren't the oners? It is used for fraud prevention. You'll need some good tools for detecting folks using stolen credit and do everything you can to keep them from using your services to stay out of trouble. Tax collection is also an issue.
Have you looked at how to minimize tax duplication for your users? I did a quick test to see what your pricing was and since it is based on package size I'm not sure most folks will have that info when trying to guess what package size the online buyer is sending them. You may want to go with a membership plus actual postage fee to encourage frequent loyal usage and just combine packages if they order frequently and pass the savings on to them.
Lastly you'll want to find reputable folks to be a 3rd party shipper. They need to have business locations where neighbors won't be annoyed with a million delivery trucks coming by each day, and that the packages aren't likely to be stolen. I would definitely choose providers near shipping UPS, FedEx and DHL hubs to save on costs and time. Be sure to get the all the shippers legal documentation since they are likely to have to deal with a lot of tax and shipping forms - especially for lost or damaged packaging. Hopefully you have a pricing model that will allow you to minimize scammers while rewarding ontime shippers. Look up the history on MailBox Etc on how they franchised before getting bought out by UPS (it is a similar kind of story like how PayPal and e-Bay evolved).
If you do this startup well I wouldn't be surprised to see you get bought out by a shipping logistics firm. Lastly change the company holding name from Legrin to Shippn to make things easier later and give more transparency about who you are since you are asking folks to put a lot of trust in you to deliver. Invest in good customer service (Zappos level).
Great service idea & best of luck!
11sharetweet・