E-commerce growth continues to dominate brick-and-mortar retail growth. While online retail still only accounts for less than 10% of all retail dollars spent in the U.S., it’s gobbling up more and more of those retail dollars every year. Last quarter, e-commerce sales grew 13% year-over-year to $50.2 billion, making it the second consecutive quarter to pass the $50 billion mark, according to comScore.
More sales mean more shipments and deliveries. But as it turns out, that can be pretty complicated, since merchants have to integrate with each shipping carrier separately. Postmaster is looking to make life easier for merchants and retailers with its REST API, which is already integrated with all the major carriers. And the startup announced Tuesday that it has raised $600,000 in a seed round led by Capital Factory, Cloud Power, and Zelkova Ventures. Postmaster has raised $708,000 to date.
The problem that Postmaster is looking to solve is a pain point for many online retailers and merchants. Merchants have to integrate with each carrier separately, and because the carriers are siloed, it makes it challenging to figure out which carrier and route is best for each package.
Postmaster’s REST API is already integrated with UPS, USPS, FedEx, Canada Post, and—as of today—Lonestar Overnight. The API, which merchants can integrate with their own backend and use to create their own solution, keeps them in compliance with each of the different carriers and optimizes the route and cost for each package. It also offers tracking, reporting, and auditing tools.
Until now, this kind of multi-carrier shipping capability has only been available to large enterprise shippers.
The TechStars Cloud graduate launched in March, and CEO Jesse Lovelace tells me that over 400 merchants and retailers are accessing the API now. He says that the company plans to use the new capital from this round to hire additional engineers, integrate with more carriers, and create a new robust analytics offering.
“API’s are eating the Internet and shipping logistics is next,” said Joshua Baer of Capital Factory, in a statement. “No programmer wants to integrate with multiple shipping vendors. Postmaster’s solution saves time in the short term and saves money in the long term. It’s a win-win proposition for any eCommerce site.”
