[EP 19] Modern Merchant Podcast: Krishna Iyer w/ ShipStation

Below, you will find a transcript of the episode.

Austin Rose:

Hey everyone, and thanks for tuning into another episode of The Modern Merchant podcast. My name is Austin and I am your host. In today’s episode, we have a very special guest. This is Krishna. He is the vice president of industry relations and partnerships at Auctane. You guys might have heard of Auctane. Auctane is familiar in the parent company of ShipStation, ShipWorks, ShippingEasy, ShipEngine, ShipSea, anything with a ship in front of it probably. But Auctane’s a really big company. Auctane acquired ShipStation and stamps.com. You’ve heard of stamps.com. Krishna will give us all of the background on that. So let’s go ahead and pass it over him. Krishna, thanks for coming on.

Krishna Iyer:

Thank you. Much obliged, much appreciated and happy to be here.

Austin Rose:

Yeah. And Krish and I, we’ve talked a bunch in the past. We did a webinar in the past with SkuVault. All three of us, I feel like, work pretty well together. We’ve had a couple conversations in the past, partnership stuff, a lot of stuff. So definitely just a continued conversation that we’ve had. And just to give the listeners out there, if we haven’t seen you on a video or another podcast in the past, give us a quick little background about you. Where you got started and then really like what’s been going on lately with Auctane and ShipStation, and where we all kind of fit in the mold with these companies.

Krishna Iyer:

All right. That sounds great. So a little bit about us. We are the platform in ecommerce, shipping and logistics. Our mantra is, wherever you sell, however you ship. And the idea is, can you bring various order sources, whether it’s a marketplace, an inventory platform, Flxpoint, certainly orders, and use a variety of different carriers. But when you do that, things can get broken down. It can get pretty disorganized. So we like to think we create a more organized workflow. We are not necessarily an inventory system, though we take pieces and certainly work well with them. We are not an OMS, per se. We like to think that we are a one trick pony that does something very unique, but does it very well around creating organized workflows around shipping and logistics. So that’s what we believe we are. And we like to think that our merchants feel the same way about us.

Austin Rose:

Yeah. Yeah, no. You guys have a really nice portfolio of different services for almost any merchant out there, too. So if I’m understanding this correctly, ShipStation, ShippingEasy and ShipWorks are relatively similar. They have a handful of different, similar features and functionality, but they kind of cater towards different retailers. Is that correct?

Krishna Iyer:

That is correct. That is correct. We say, wherever you sell, however you ship, but our solutions, particularly ShipStation, are meant to grow with you either from the time that you’re a beginning merchant, all the way up to very professional enterprise brands that use our software to turn out hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of packages a day.

Austin Rose:

Gotcha. So with software, we’re in software, we’re in SaaS. And I know, with you, you’ve kind of been in that domain of logistics and shipping. You have that domain expertise and background with your past experiences. And how did you get into software? Where did it all start?

Krishna Iyer:

Sure. So for me, I spent about 10 years at FedEx. I had started interning with them when I was getting my first master’s degree, and ended up going into large account sales, international sales, and sales management. And then, into product development in the US, and actually in Europe, in setting up intercountry services, around shipping and logistics for FedEx in Western Europe, India, other parts of the Middle East and various aspects in between. Subsequently from there I was able to go over to our friends at Pitney Bowes. I was there for a little while. Spent a little time at Groupon, setting up their cross border trade. And then with Neopost, based in France, around shipping and logistics, until finally coming around here to Auctane, ShipStation, where partnerships, particularly around marketplaces, selling channels and the like kind of fall under my team.

Austin Rose:

So you kind of stuck with the shipping and logistics, stuck with the software. Did you do a lot of traveling, it sounds like, with FedEx?

Krishna Iyer:

I did. I did. And the crazy thing is, if folks are listening to this on the podcast, they can’t see it, but I’m supposedly one of only a few people in the world, a few hundred people in the world, that have lifetime titanium status on Marriott believe it or not.

Austin Rose:

Marriott.

Krishna Iyer:

Well, I said that once to a friend, oh, only a few hundred people had that, kind of thumping my chest. And then he happened to pull out the same card and I was super crushed from all of it. So I like lies being told to me and like to believe them.

Austin Rose:

Hey, I get it. I got to get on that track. I’m not much of a traveler myself, one of these days we’ll get out there. The good thing with software is we could work in a lot of different areas. We don’t have to be in one specific place. So let’s kind of dive in a little bit on the logistical side of things. So you clearly start, I mean, you’re at FedEx for 10 years and you’ve been at Auctane, how long have you been with Auctane?

Krishna Iyer:

Five years, five years.

Austin Rose:

Five years. And not even including Groupon and some of the other places that you’re at, I mean, that’s a good 15 to 20 years in that realm of shipping and logistics. Clearly you’re working on international stuff. What is a normal barrier, like a handful of barriers, that you see with customers or retailers trying to go international? And not even taking into account a global pandemic. I mean, we obviously couldn’t predict that. So without that, what do most of these retailers, either they don’t see, or they do see, that they just are, they’re going to run into eventually? Because honestly we get this question a lot as well. We get people that are looking for that next step. That next, like, I got to get to this number, I got to get over this. We’re only shipping domestically, we need to go international. What do you see from a barrier perspective getting into an international market?

Krishna Iyer:

Sure. I think the first barrier is where to get started because it’s scary. It’s just like investing. It’s just like doing anything for the first time. Really taking the first step is the scariest, because nobody really knows necessarily where to get started. Although I do have some thoughts around where to get started. But really where to get started and what countries and products to do first always become a question that really a lot of retailers don’t know how to answer.

Austin Rose:

So where do you get started?

Krishna Iyer:

Okay. Well, where I would get started is first off prioritizing, what are the products that you want to try to surface internationally? A typical mistake that a retailer has is that they’ll try to list their entire product portfolio out to the masses internationally, anywhere to anywhere, any country. But in reality, that’s a pretty terrible approach because you’re going to stress yourself out. Folks outside of the US who may not know you don’t necessarily want to see your full product portfolio, and you’ll run into problems with customs. So I would say really getting started is, number one, taking a look at where is the demand? Where are the requests? Where are the IP addresses that are visiting your website? Who’s making the inquiries, and on what products? Can you prioritize the countries and the products themselves that you want to surface?

Krishna Iyer:

A good rule of thumb is to start with the markets that we know the best. Meaning the UK, Australia, Canada. Places where if you do a listing in English, you’re not going to run into a lot of trouble. Where you may not have a lot of currency problems. A lot of problems with the language and localization of your listing, that’s one. The number two aspect of that in looking at countries like Canada or Australia or UK, is that typically your customs and duties are a little less onerous than some other markets in question. But definitely starting with somewhere like Canada or even Mexico. Even though Mexico, a lot of times, people because of Spanish, because of maybe some hesitancy, because they haven’t necessarily dealt with Mexico before. Especially with the USMCA, the United States, Mexico, Canada, Free Trade Agreement, that replaced NAFTA. That’s a really good place to get started, are the countries within our region of Canada and Mexico. Since the import limits have become more favorable to international and cross border trade.

Krishna Iyer:

So I’d say definitely look at starting small and looking at countries that are easy, products that are easy and where your demand is coming from as the place to start. Another place to start, probably the easiest, is working directly with marketplaces you sell on. So if you sell your products on Amazon, they almost always have cross-border programs. So you can contact Amazon and ask them about that. They’re almost always looking for products that they can find on other countries’ websites. That’s one. Number two is someone like eBay, same thing, that looks at the channels that you’re selling on and they almost always have programs to try to entice you to sell those products in other markets. And the other benefit of the marketplace is they will oftentimes have certain things around fraud protections, things that you may feel a little uncomfortable about getting started. Whether it’s the currency, whether it’s fraud, whether it’s the returns. And a lot of times we’ll either offer you incentives or a lower commission rate if you do sell those products across borders.

Krishna Iyer:

Another area to get started that may be a little more intimidating, but if you check our website of ShipStation, we work with a lot of global marketplaces. Folks like Coupang in South Korea, or MercadoLibre in Latin America. These may not be household names in the US, but these are marketplaces that get more traffic than some of the other ones that we talk about combined. Mercado Libre is the fourth largest marketplace in the world. So some of them directly, if you contact them, have US cross border programs. Some of them are listed on our ShipStation website. And certainly we’re always happy to make a connection with those marketplaces to help you sell them to consumers in those markets itself.

Austin Rose:

Yeah. And I feel like a lot of the barriers that I’ve seen, or we’ve seen, are the shipping costs specifically. Like, yes, you now know the products you want to sell. You know that you can, in fact, ship Canada. Might be a little bit easier for you. Or even, I’ve even thought about testing out. Maybe you’re just like a lower 48 kind of business, and then let’s start incorporating maybe Puerto Rico. And figure that a whole domain out of shipping in Puerto Rico. Still the US, but things are a little bit different from Florida to Georgia versus Puerto Rico. But it’s funny , the shipping cost is like another really big thing to keep in mind. I feel like, especially in a drop shipping world too, that’s a make or break on like, this isn’t even worth it now. The shipping cost is unbelievable. But for some it’s totally fine. So kind of my take on that.

Krishna Iyer:

Yeah. And I’ll say as a follow up point to that, a lot of people, because of inventory constraints or limited inventory, don’t want to get into international business. But I would definitely say that right now is the time to get into international and take a look at it. Because when times are good and you have excess inventory, and you have people wanting to buy, they may be a little less patient with things like shipping and logistics delays, things like that. Some of the nuances are getting started.

Krishna Iyer:

Whereas right now, people both, of course domestically in the US, and internationally, might be just a little bit more forgiving on longer lead times, higher cost shipments. And just some of the other things that we see associated with it. So I would actually say, if you can segment a little bit of inventory and get started now, either on a marketplace or directly from your own website and selling internationally, that’ll pay off dividends two years, three years, five years. We’re not going to have a supply chain crisis, an inventory crisis forever so you’re going to go back to that time where you want to expand your sales. You want to try to decrease your inventory holding time, things like that. So I’d say definitely now is the right time to get started to work out some of the kinks that can pay off two or three years down the road.

Austin Rose:

That’s a good point. And in certain things we’re starting to open up more now than they were what, a few months ago and a year ago. Which brings me to my next question, and we talked a little bit about this. Talked about it. It’s funny talking about the global pandemic with companies and disruptions that they see, and you really start to see they obviously are blinders and they only see it in their domain. So we see a lot of things good and bad that came out of the pandemic from our blinders of data management, integrations, kind of connecting order management, inventory and things like that. But from you guys and your, as like a shipping and logistical side, and you specifically worked in either with FedEx back in the day, and then working with partnerships on that breadth, what were some specific disruptions that you see that are either currently happening, or we’ve resolved? Just like important things that people with those blinders probably haven’t seen, or are currently still going through issues with the pandemic?

Krishna Iyer:

Sure. I think the first is that people still don’t have that mindset, even though all of us are consumers. All of us who are vendors are also consumers of that empathy, of the need to know, the want to know, around shipping and logistics. For example, yesterday I ordered something from a very large retailer that almost all of us have shopped from. And even going through their shipping and logistics, because of course I’m a nerd and I’m going to look at this stuff. But there were things, like when I looked at the tracking, it says expected by X date. Which was of course now a couple weeks in the future, it says expected by November 29th. Okay. But what does expected ” mean? Is that the date that it is supposed to be dispatched and leave?

Krishna Iyer:

Is that the date that it’s supposed to arrive? So that level of clarity, again, putting yourself in the mind of the consumer, we still see a lot of retailers that aren’t doing it. I mean, I’m looking at this tracking event right now in front of me, and that could have been solved either with just a little bit of nuanced language, or showing the actual path of that package itself as to when it was tendered, where it is right now, things like that. So I think that, that’s one thing. But taking that and translating that into actually, like a shopping listing, or in the cart itself, and that level of granularity of detail around the shipping and logistics, that’s something that’s always been an existing problem. The battle for the sale is now one in the cart. That level of communication has consistently been a problem. And I think the visibility for that retailer into where that inventory is, is it coming in, do you have the right level of quantity of inventory to match the demand or vice versa? Are you ordering properly?

Krishna Iyer:

So inventory visibility has long been a problem, and the pandemic has just frankly made it a whole lot worse, unless you have the right tools in place. Shameless plug, by the way.

Austin Rose:

I’m going to give you a plug section. We’ll get you in there.

Krishna Iyer:

That’s a plug for you, my friend. A plug for you.

Austin Rose:

Well it’s funny because I go through all the same stuff too, right? I’m shopping as well. I just got a couple packages today. But it’s just, it’s one of those things where we feel a little bit used to longer shipping times. Honestly, if I order something that I know for a fact I don’t need it right now, I’m okay with waiting an extra day, an extra couple days. I mean even sometimes an extra week or two weeks. But at the end of the day, I do want to know, at least have a little bit more clarity. There was, whatever came in today, what are we on, Tuesday? So I had something that was supposed to be expected by Sunday. And then of course on Sunday it’s kind of a bigger purchase and I’m just like, go ahead looking for it.

Austin Rose:

And it’s like, expected today. And then the last update was from where it got shipped out. In California and we’re in Florida. And I’m like, if that was the last update, from California and it’s supposed to be shipped today, and there’s no update of, oh, arrived in Jacksonville, and out for order. And all that stuff. And that’s all I have, I’m like, okay, how long am I going to wait for this? Is this going to be the next day? The day after, the day after that? And it’s like, I just need clarity. I don’t care if it’s going to take long. I totally am okay with that as a consumer. And I feel like a lot of people are like that.

Krishna Iyer:

Absolutely. And I’ll say this, I’ll go a step further. Tier one retailers are actually, in a lot of ways, the worst at this because they think they have to go it alone and build a shopping cart from scratch, rather than using a platform like Shopify or BigCommerce or whomever. But I’ll tell you a story. So this past January, I’ll tell you where I am in my marriage. For our anniversary I had said to my wife, what do you want? She said she wanted HexClad, the pans. And they’re a Shopify site. And I ordered from them and right there and then you could see the map, and I got text notifications. And I got it in relatively timely fashion and was communicated with, even though there were a couple delays, got them, knew exactly where everything was. Contrast that, the same day I had ordered from a tier one retailer for my mother, for her birthday, which was at the end of January, this is the beginning of January.

Krishna Iyer:

So leaving myself enough lead time, to your point, about, okay, some delays are expected. So I wait, wait, wait, this is weeks upon weeks. And mother’s birthday comes around, no birthday gift. Even though I was fully prepared. I had done it well in advance. Finally, it’s the middle of February and I call the retailer and I ask, “Okay, where is my package? Where is my order?” They’re like, oh, because it says, it’s ready to ship. Is the event. I’m like, okay, well what does that mean? They’re like, well, looks like it’s going to be fulfilled any day now. So I wait another few days and then I call back again. I’m like, “Okay, this is ridiculous.” They’re like, “Well we don’t know. We have no control over that because that’s our drop ship vendor.” I said, “Oh, that is the worst thing you could possibly tell me.” Especially to someone like me in this space.

Austin Rose:

Yeah, yeah.

Krishna Iyer:

I was thinking to myself, oh, you messed with the wrong guy. But in all seriousness, number one, think of that retailer and how they communicated. Oh, we have no control over the drop ship vendor. Well, that’s your problem. Number one. But number two, even when I said fine, cancel the order, they said, “Well, okay, we’ll cancel the order, but if the vendor dispatches the product tomorrow, we don’t have any control over that.” So again, that’s a problem. That even caused me a little bit of a headache thinking, oh, well, in the time of me canceling this order, are they going to in fact dispatch it and then I got to do a return? So if you think about that, that to me was an example of, again, sometimes those tier one retailers, they think they know everything about the cart when they really don’t because it’s not their area of expertise, as compared to some of our friends at Shopify or a BigCommerce, or wherever, that really are in that every day in comparison.

Krishna Iyer:

So I guess if you are a tier one retailer, not trying to call your baby ugly, but it is potentially some good learning to invest in some cart technologies that are out there.

Austin Rose:

Yeah. And of course you said, dropship vendor. And now my head is going like, oh, they didn’t do this right, they didn’t do this right. At the end of the day that shouldn’t have been in stock. If you’re not able to fulfill on something and if it’s not in stock with a drop ship vendor to be shipped out, I bet you that’s a hundred percent what happened. They have something coming in for that vendor and they think it’s going to get to them, so they’re like, yeah, this is available. And it’s clearly not available if it’s ready to ship and it’s not actually shipping. And that is the one thing, as a consumer too, that I hate to hear as well is, well, I guess it’s two things. It’s the, oh, it’ll go out any day now, kind of thing. And then, oh, we don’t have control over that. It’s like, you’re the business that I just bought this from, you should have the most control of when something’s getting shipped out.

Krishna Iyer:

Sure. And I think another piece to that, to add insult onto the injury is I canceled my order. So for the retailer, I mean, a canceled order is terrible. Because that’s not only a lost sale, but a negative experience. But what did you as the retailer do to try to make that right? And that retailer never reached out to me, never asked me, sent me even a generic email survey, like, hey, what went wrong with this order? So to me as a consumer, I am probably never going to buy from that retailer ever again. And that’s a sad thing because it was a fairly big ticket item, but it really goes to show you, even if you have shipping and logistic problems, if you can’t have the presence of mind to ask your consumer, “Hey, what went wrong there, you canceled an order. What can we do to make that right?” Then you’re really in trouble for future sales.

Austin Rose:

Yeah, definitely. It was funny. I just, I went through another kind of, not bad experience, but accidentally, the good, Google saves like addresses and I put the wrong address on the package and it ended up getting shipped and I instantly saw it. Because everybody sends you a confirmation. And so I was just like, oh no, wrong address. And there’s no way for me to change it. So I instantly contacted support in two different places to be like, hey, can I get this changed, three minutes after I made the order? Well, they say things won’t get shipped out within the next couple days. It gets shipped out like two hours later, which was like, oh, you guys got to it quick. And then at the same time, their support team didn’t contact me for a week. It already was delivered to the wrong address, and then they reached out to me and I was like, oh my goodness, like your shipping department couldn’t be any more disconnected from your customer service department.

Krishna Iyer:

Right, right.

Austin Rose:

It was not fun. Okay, cool. Some great topics, great things to think about in regards to shipping, international. We’ve kind of seen a lot of these differences, it’s funny, I like to think businesses should think of themselves as consumers. Because at the end of the day, we all buy stuff anyways. So it’s a great way of thinking of all your personal experiences. So you’ve got some really good points there, but I kind of want to shift over to partnerships because that’s kind of both of our domains. It’s been your domain for a really long time. I like the stories. You give great stories, Krish. Let’s talk about partnerships that you foster with ShipStation and Auctane. Some cool ones are coming up. You guys actually just announced a partnership with Google. Let’s go into that. I mean, that sounds awesome. I mean, who doesn’t not know Google?

Krishna Iyer:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It’s going to be a fun one. What it was was that last December, we kind of soft launched, because of course it’s December, most folks don’t want to make a lot of changes, Google Shopping, which has been a pretty exciting one because it’s one of those selling channels where there are no commissions, no fees. And so a seller has obviously the power of Google behind it to list their products, to buy on Google, but without a lot of onerous fees and a chunk out of it. So it’s really a risk free investment to look at Google as a selling channel for your products. Because obviously that’s where people search for your product. That’s one. But taking that a step further, we’ve been working under the cover of darkness with Google for about a year now on something exciting. And this is the first forum that I’m going to talk about. And that is this.

Krishna Iyer:

If you’re a merchant, although you can list your products on Google and somebody can do buy on Google, the reality is somebody can find your products either through another vendor, even through Google, or they could find your product on a marketplace, which isn’t the worst thing in the world if they find your marketplace listing through a Google search. But you sure would like to have it bought through your channel where you make more profit, and get higher brand recognition, and all the goody good things that come with that. Well now you can.

Krishna Iyer:

And that is because of Google shopping listings, if you’re a ShipStation merchant, you can give Google permission to have some of the metadata around your on time shipping and fulfillment information to then inform your seller ratings. So being able to go list your product, buy on Google, showing that, hey, you’re a merchant that has very good on time shipping and logistics. And being able to show that can then nudge someone to buy the product from your Buy on Google listing, from you directly. And that can really make a big difference. That’s number one. And number two, to have Google inside of the merchant center of Google, to be able to generate a shipping label, returns, things like that. Just be able to connect your Google account inside the Google merchant center. And it’s a pretty seamless project.

Austin Rose:

Awesome. That sounds great. I mean, a lot of people are jumping on that Google train. They’ve been doing that, at least from a seller’s perspective, but even now, so more than ever. And I’m just getting spammed on Google ads right now. So hard on like all of these different stuff. Besides Google, because that’s a great partnership that you guys got going. A lot of people sell on Google. What other partnerships have you done in your five years, what’s some fun, notable conversations, opportunities that you guys were stoked about and are able to move forward for ShipStation, or any of the other ones?

Krishna Iyer:

Sure. I think one of the most fun ones was working with Facebook on being able to launch Facebook Marketplace. Really to the idea of being a marketplace. Obviously a lot of focusing on Facebook marketplace as being for local products and furniture, cars, things like that. But the reality is much like the secondhand market is getting a lot of attention these days because of a lack of inventory, Facebook marketplace, and that being a really viable source of finding new products for products that you were looking for. But because of that critical lack of inventory, having a channel to do that, that’s Facebook Marketplace, that’s one. But another one that, to me, jumps out at me as being very fun was the idea of Alibaba. Alibaba, very well known outside the US. They have multiple marketplaces, both on the business to business side, business, to consumer side.

Krishna Iyer:

What I found fun about that one here in the US was the idea that I often have said that every B2C merchant is actually a B2B merchant, they just don’t know it yet. And it’s really, there’s only one key difference and that’s the quantity of items sold. But the reality is, wouldn’t you want to sell more quantities of your items and make it more efficient, maybe to sell to one buyer? One buyer, one seller. So being able to launch Alibaba US has definitely been a lot of fun. So I’d say Facebook, Alibaba, Google, certainly some other ones. One recently was Simon Malls which actually has an ecommerce marketplace, Shop Premium Outlets, that corresponds nicely with their retail locations, their outlet malls, where it’s kind of high velocity brands like Gucci or Armani, or folks like that.

Krishna Iyer:

But now starting to get some digitally native brands that are selling there. We have that as a marketplace available on ShipStation, certainly for merchants looking to try to sell on that as an avenue. So definitely a lot of really fun ones like that. And I think some of the ones that I mentioned are outside the US. Mercado Libre. Being able to launch that here in the US. Coupang, largest marketplace in Korea, one of the top 20 marketplaces in the world. Most Americans don’t know who they are, but they are gaining a lot of traction, a lot of mobility, and launching them both here in the US and outside the US. So those have been some fun ones. Have been the ones outside of the US that say, no, no, we want US products, we want US sellers to sell on our marketplace. Those are some really fun ones because you get to interact with some folks in Korea or in Japan or in Latin America. And really know that there’s a whole literally world of ecommerce that we don’t think about quite literally.

Austin Rose:

Yeah, no, a hundred percent. We get some random ones that just pop up and it’s like, we’re so in this domain of just the US. And then once you open your eyes and see the potential of all these other companies to work with, I mean, who knows? Sky’s the limit, right? There’s a bunch of different things that we could do. Being on the partnership side, it’s fun with those long drawn out conversations, but at the same time, you’re just like, let’s get to the next step and the next step. And let’s get to the end, kind of thing. Because sometimes some of those bigger companies, I know, I’m sure beating the drum for you, like, it’s so much longer than you want it to be. At least like the conversations and like trying to get them to be like, okay, we are a vetted partner, we have an integration and we’re ready to go to market with it.

Austin Rose:

So always a fun conversation to have for years and years and years. Anything on the Auctane side? I mean you guys, Auctane now owns Stamps. That was kind of one of the big things you guys went through this year and then just announced Google. Anything that we can look forward to next year, or coming up this next month? Anything, any cool things, any little nuggets you can throw in there that ShipStation maybe is doing, or one of your services? I know ShipEngine connect was actually a really big thing that you guys launched as well. And we had a conversation with Jim over at ShipEngine, that was a really fun podcast. And we went really into the dev side of things, which was really cool. You don’t really get to see that domain if you’re not at dev.

Krishna Iyer:

Oh yeah.

Austin Rose:

But yeah, what’s going on with you guys that’s coming up soon?

Krishna Iyer:

Sure. I think definitely in 2022 you’ll see a big focus on a few things. The local delivery experience, same day. For years it was what I would call a dancing bear. It’s cool. It’s fun. It’s interesting. But nobody really knows what to do with it. And so, but now it really is a very viable part of the shipping mix. For years, I liken it to, if you wanted expedited shipping, the take rate, in fact, was quite low for many years. But you had to offer it from a peace of mind and brand perspective that if people wanted it, they may not take it very often, but they wanted it as an option. And that’s starting to become the same thing with the same day, but the take rate is actually more rapidly being adopted than even overnight.

Krishna Iyer:

Because if the need is there, they want it right away and they’re paying a premium, so they might as well pay more of a premium then the idea of even overnight. So if an interesting phenomenon, and we’re poised to try to take advantage of that because consumers want it and the brands want it. That’s one. And of course, international, like I said, definitely going to be a focus item of expanding more in the UK, Australia, France, Germany. Certainly a lot of other fund markets that if I can find a way to boondoggle to do a visit, I certainly will. With any excuse that I can.

Austin Rose:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. We’re starting to get on those talks as well. Looking at different international markets and just opening that Pandora’s box of just, who knows what’s going to be inside? Hopefully I can get going and we can get there.

Krishna Iyer:

There we go.

Austin Rose:

We’ll see. Give us a plug, real quick. What you got? ShipStation, ShipWorks, Auctane. If anybody wants to check you out, where do I go? How do I get involved? How do I talk to somebody?

Krishna Iyer:

Sure. What I would say is go to our website www. Oh wait, now I sound old if I say, www, don’t I? Okay, so A-U-C-T-A-N-E, Auctane. Kind of like an auction, a play on words. That joke would’ve been really funny in about 2008, 2009, when we originally started with Auctane as a play on words of eBay. But Auctane.com. And you can see all of the portfolio of our brands, like ShipWork, ShippingEasy, ShipSea, as we mentioned for the same day, and ShipStation. And definitely check us out.

Austin Rose:

Perfect. Well, Krish, is there anything that we didn’t talk about? I think one thing that, when we get Travis on, we always like to kick it around to you. What’s something ecommerce retailers, anybody that’s listening, should be kind of ear to the ground or trying to listen for, or anything that we didn’t talk about?

Krishna Iyer:

I’d say omnichannel has always been that overused buzzword for years. But I think really now you have to have that omnichannel inventory visibility. What’s the inventory in your stores? What’s the inventory online? Where are you fulfilling from? But most importantly, do you have a consistent strategy, and can your stores actually execute it? Do you have somebody in a front office saying, reading the Wall Street Journal saying, oh, omnichannel, we ought to do it, but do they know the nuances or the reality of what it actually takes to ship from store? Which is not necessarily the easiest thing to do.

Austin Rose:

Yeah. Well, perfect, Krish. I’ve really enjoyed the conversation. You’ve had some great stories, you always do. So I’m happy that you got on here. Happy we’re the first ones to talk about the Google integration. So that’s good. We’ll get that out there going. And anybody, obviously that’s listening, obviously ShipStation has been around for a long time. I’m sure you guys have seen stuff. But Auctane acquiring Stamps, and they’ve got a whole portfolio of different services that you need, whether you’re on the dev side, a small retailer, midsize retailer, a large retailer, they’ve got everything on there. So head over to Auctane.com.

Austin Rose:

Have any questions for us about Flxpoint connecting into ShipStation, we’re connected to ShipStation, ShippingEasy. I think maybe ShipWorks soon. We’ve got a handful of ShipEngine integrations. Obviously we’re pretty connected with you guys. Go check us out. Flxpoint.com. F-L-X. We don’t believe in vowels, so F-L-X-P-O-I-N-T.com. Krish, thanks for jumping on today. I appreciate it.

Krishna Iyer:

All right. Thank you so much.