When the Postman is just around the corner...

He might not deliver you something but collect. Not a parcel. He got his own. But the content. The American startup Shyp intends to facilitate their customer’s lifes by making the walk to the post office obsolete. Even packing and labeling is in the past.

Let’s make a quick time journey.  Christmas. Do you remember how you feverishly tried to wrap the bulky skateboard or the unshapely backpack? And then the long distance between you and the post office... Shyp wants to assume this unbeloved process. Simply by using an iPhone app: Take a picture oft he item you want to sent, communicate addressee and merchandise value to Shyp and klick on „Pickup now!“. And within a moment the Shyp hero in blue comes around the corner. Of course the app offers a livetracking feature so you are always on his scent until he is finally at your place within a few minutes.

Sounds familiar to you? Shyp can be compared well with on-demand services such as Uber. Or also with other delivery services such as UPS or FedEx. Hereby, Shyp does not take away anything from well established postal operaters but play into their hands. The Shyp hero brings the goods to Shyp’s warehouse where it is packed and labeled accurately and eventually passed to that one carrier with best conditions. FedEx & co. do the (world wide) shipping then. Thus, Shyp can be seen as the connecting piece between company and end client. Matter of expense for the customer are the common shipping costs plus a charge of five US-Dollar for the pick-up service.

Can there be Shyp in Europe? With about 25.000 delivered parcels, the startup has just started to expand in America. So far the delivery service maintain depots in San Francisco, Miami and New York. More US cities are to follow. Shyp itself claims that an international expansion in Europe is planned. If that is going to happen in the near future remains doubtful. The enlargement of on-demand services as well as the buildung and maintaining of depots are expensive. Thus, the alignment with established postal operators is advisable. The reason: The more convenient the sending of goods for the customers is organised, the more people might do it. And the more often Shyp deploy its Heroes and pass them on FedEx & co., the more profit can be produced on both sites. 

If and when Shyp comes to Europe remains to be seen. Until then, keep on practising wrapping presents. Next christmas is just around the cornern.