RedRoller launches shopping for shipping to SMBs

Computerworld - RedRoller Holdings Inc. has launched its One-Stop Shipping software service for small and midsize business.

The service, a type of search engine for shipping, makes it easier and cheaper for SMBs to ship packages, said William VanWyck, founder and president of RedRoller Holdings Inc. RedRoller's service enables SMBs to search multicarrier shipping options, select services from a carrier, and print authorized shipping labels and postage for packages from its Web site, he said.

RedRoller offers services from several package carriers selected by the user, including DHL, Overnite Express and the U.S. Postal Service, the company said. Using RedRoller, businesses can select a shipping service and arrange to have their packages picked up by their selected carriers, or they can view a map of the most convenient drop-off locations, according to the company. RedRoller then automatically processes the transactions with the selected carriers and prints carrier shipping or postage labels.

"What we've learned during our beta period from customers is that the SMBs that use RedRoller have been taking full advantage of the ease of use and convenience of the service," VanWyck said. "These small businesses are increasingly using multiple types of sales channels to conduct their transactions; they're using their eBay stores, they're using Amazon, and they're using their own Web sites, and some of them even still have a retail presence. But a lot of small businesses are having problems because they don't have a centralized location to provide a shipping transaction system that deals with all of these various sales channels."

Ron Baur, owner of Spirit Creek Walking Sticks in Waldport, Ore., said RedRoller allows his business to be more competitive.

"Shipping is the number one concern of customers on the Web, and the tighter you can keep that, the better you look," he said. "And if I'm offering free shipping to my customers, the logic would be for me to get that cost as low as possible."

Baur said that when he sells his walking sticks on eBay and gets a shipping rate quote from one carrier, he can then go to the RedRoller Web site, enter that information and compare the rate quotes from other carriers.

"And if the carriers offer me a [discounted] rate, I can go to RedRoller and plug in that number. So when I'm doing my comparative analysis to ship something, that [discounted] rate is taken into consideration," he said. "So it's not just a straight-up price quote from the carriers, it's more personalized. The real beauty is that it's quick. It will transfer my information from a sale on eBay directly to RedRoller, and it gives me the comparison from DHL, FedEx, DHL and the U.S. Postal Service. I've never heard of anything else like it."