Zipments

SPRING IS HERE!

The sub-zero windchill, city-closing snow storms, and 17 layers of clothing are finally behind us. To celebrate the season, we wanted to share a few ways we’ve been helping with your spring-related tasks. 

It’s wedding season

Wedding season has officially begun and Patina Rentals, NYC’s premier spot for vintage furniture rentals, is here to help. Patina is an event planners dream with unique chairs, bars, sofas, and more from a variety of eras. Plan the perfect wedding, party, or company event with the best looking furniture around. 

Out with the old 

Closet space is precious and spring is the perfect time to donate your old clothes to Goodwill, Salvation Army or your neighborhood donation center. You’ll be helping some great organizations, cleaning out your closet and maybe even contributing to someone’s Halloween costume, all at the same time. Schedule a Zipments pickup of your donation items when you’re ready!

In with the new

Nothing says spring like a new floral dress - and Diane von Furstenberg wrap dresses are the perfect spring & summer staple. If you’re in NYC, DVF offers free same day delivery through our Shopping Pass so you can shop and have your dress sent back to your home, office, or hotel. 

Spring cleaning!

We joke in the delivery business that there isn't really a "slow time-of-year". Just as we wind down from the frenzy of the holidays, we ramp up for Valentines Day & Fashion Week NY. Truth be told, Valentine's Day deliveries are sort of a team favorite. When else do you get to make so many people smile in one day? 

We also get to work with so many awesome companies that deliver sweet gifts year-round. Here are a few companies we're helping to spread the love this year:

Edible Arrangements  You've probably heard of (or consumed) one of these before! Seriously though - what's not to love about a basket of fruit covered in chocolate?

Urban Stems Delivering in Manhattan and Washington DC, Urban Stems is flipping the floral delivery world on it's head with beautiful & modern $35 bouquets (including delivery!). We hear you might receive a pizza gift certificate with your bouquet - and if pizza and flowers aren't on your top 5 list of favorite things... 

Cookies by Design ...OR cupcakes! Cookies by Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan is serving up cookie bouquets and festive cupcakes to West Michiganders. If you're looking to do something festive at work, they also do some awesome logo cookies. 

Ode a la Rose  Sure, you can deliver flowers and a cute note - but wouldn't it be better if you could send a sweet video message? Ode a la Rose thinks so! Their app allows you to send a personalized video message along with your flowers so you can say what you really mean. They deliver same day in NYC and next day throughout the Northeast.

To wrap up this great year, we spent some time scouring our databases for the best and most interesting delivery insights of 2014. We thought we’d share a few to shed some light on what life at Zipments is really like.

1. We’re probably on the American Diabetes Association’s watch list.

In 2014, we helped celebrate hundreds of birthdays and special events by delivering delicious treats from bakeries across the country. We estimate that it makes us responsible for the consumption of about 24 million calories. Sorry about that, ADA.

2. We’ve traveled around the earth 18 times. 

Our couriers have biked, walked, and driven enough miles to loop the earth 18 times. By the way, we estimate that to have burned about 24 million calories, which should help us get back in the good graces of the ADA.

3. We’ve delivered enough NYC Fashion Week garment bags to outfit the Statue of Liberty.

Lady Liberty would look fabulous in one of the thousands of dresses we delivered from dozens of NYC fashion houses.

4. We saved marriages all across NYC 

On Valentine's Day, our cupid couriers delivered thousands of flowers and actually saved relationships through our partnership with 1-800-Flowers.com. 

5. We’re actually helping you sleep better. 

This year, we supported an innovative mattress company with bike delivery. That’s right, we delivered mattresses by bike.

6. And the Delivery of the Year award goes to…

Bruno.

7. We collectively gave grocery shoppers back 9 months of their lives. 

We delivered thousands of orders for grocery delivery companies this year so shoppers could avoid the checkout line. But now for the real questions: Why is the other line always faster? And how is everyone keeping up with their tabloid news?

8. We helped detoxify .5% of the population in West Village, NYC. 

Juice Cleanse deliveries were definitely on-trend in 2014. Probably because if you’re on a cleanse, you don’t have the energy to pick anything up. Now, come on people. Don’t let .5% of West Villagers be the only healthy ones in 2015. 

9. We helped thousands of people trick their friends into thinking they are actually great cooks. 

Have you heard of Plated? Basically, you get all the ingredients to make an awesome meal delivered to your house. A great life-hack if you ask us. 

10. We saved Christmas.

Need it there today? Better use our sleigh. This Christmas we preserved Santa’s reputation by bailing him out a few times on some “delayed” gifts. You’re welcome, Santa.

Anyone who tracks the same day delivery space knows this is an industry undergoing rapid change.  Not only are consumer and business expectations quickly changing but rarely does a week go by where there isn’t an announcement of yet another tech startup positioned to provide “X on demand.” 

As a company focused on being the best logistics partner available for businesses and consumers, we welcome the growing number of companies (both startups and traditional retailers) who desire to partner with Zipments to offer consumers a faster, more convenient solution for getting just about anything delivered whenever, wherever the consumer wants.  That said, we also strive to build a long term, sustainable business that can create real, lasting value to our investors, our employees, our couriers and our clients.  This requires us to take a critical eye at the marketplace and our role within it. 

Whenever the term “free delivery” is used or when price points for delivery are quoted well below the market defendable level, it catches our attention.  To be clear, if you are a retailer who opts to absorb the cost of delivery in order to attract more sales, we fully support that strategy.  But if your business is largely operating as a middleman (essentially aggregating demand and pointing that demand to other companies’ offerings), it begs the question, “How does ‘free’ enable a long term sustainable, not to mention, lucrative business?”

Over the past few years, several startups in the “X on demand” space have raised significant amounts of venture capital and have offered free or nearly free deliveries of their products in order to capture market share.   But as we were all told during childhood, money doesn’t grow on trees and “free” is not really free.  In other words, someone is paying for these deliveries.  Near term, it may be that investors are paying for the deliveries through their infusion of venture capital into these startups.  That’s fine if that’s the direction given by the boards of these companies (who are typically represented by one or more members of the investor group).  However, the problem is that long term, the cost of these deliveries may be paid for by the service providers performing the deliveries.  At Zipments, we refer to these people as “couriers” and they are extremely important to our business. 

 So what do I mean when I say that the cost of these deliveries may be paid for by the couriers performing these deliveries?  Well, there’s a fancy term used by economists to explain this concept.  It’s called “externalizing costs.”  Essentially it’s the practice of passing on a portion of the cost of a product or service to a third party.  It’s a practice performed by many large companies as a way to reduce costs and maximize profits but it’s rarely a strategy used by startups.  After all, what third party in their right mind would willingly absorb the costs passed on to them by a small, unproven company?  Well, in this new age of crowdsourcing, there’s a growing practice of cost externalizing to small independent service providers who are committing their time and resources in pursuit of financial and other intangible rewards that come through a contractor arrangement. 

Often these contractors haven’t accurately accounted for the full costs they incur in performing their services for companies and this is where they run the risk of being exploited.  Under pressure to rapidly secure market share, startups will create an artificial market where pricing is below a sustainable level…where we have a gap between the price businesses and consumers are willing to pay and the actual cost to offer the quality of service advertised.

This “gap” is constantly at the forefront of our minds at Zipments as we aim to scale a sustainable business that offers quality service at a competitive price.  Through venture funding and crowdsourcing, it’s easy to take shortcuts in the pursuit of becoming a market leader.  But externalizing our costs to a crowd of third party service providers is like building a house on sand…and frankly, it’s not good for our society. 

They say every startup needs a hacker and a hustler.  You’re either building or selling.  Writing code or writing term sheets.  Tackling a technical problem or tackling a sale.

This implies these traits don’t usually exist in one person.  I say we look more broadly at the contributions of a high functioning team.  

Everyone knows a high-level Sales team can hustle.  But hack?  I’ve seen our Sales team craft rigorously streamlined pricing and plans to dislodge an inefficient and entrenched industry.  Through smarts and stamina, they are hacking a system of calcified processes, opaque pricing and disingenuous service.

I’ve seen our Developers hustle when a client gets an API error 10pm on a Saturday, using calm finesse to ensure the delivery is fulfilled up to the customer’s front door.  Their hustle is evident every time they address a real world problem with a simple, elegant solution that always resonates with the masses.

Our Digital Marketing lead accomplished the ultimate hack when he took on our legacy app (with protective gatekeepers!) and incorporated hidden triggers and breadcrumbs so we know more about our users than ever before.  He hustles daily in the corners of the web, hunting new targets and approaches for showing our value, and pulling customers through to buy.  

And, finally, our Courier Managers exemplify the hustle in their daily rallying of a dynamic and challenging workforce, selling a long-depressed industry on a new, better way to work.  And their hacks?  Try re-routing five burning 60 minute rushes during FashionWeek.  Or dispatching five hundred Valentine’s Day deliveries during a blizzard.

What defines Zipments is that our product lives as much offline as it does online.  More users mean more servers, and more feet (and wheels) on the street.  We are continually challenged by the demands of daily local commerce, consumers’ instant gratification, and retailers wanting to surprise customers in an increasingly competitive environment.

One of the benefits of being forty-something is that I’ve lived long enough to appreciate the expression “the more things change the more they stay the same.”  After all, in my lifetime I’ve witnessed the rise and fall in popularity of bell bottom jeans…twice. 

When I began fundraising for my first start up in the early 2000’s the most common question I received was “What if Microsoft enters your market?”  Again during our fundraising campaigns in 2007 and 2008, one of the most common questions was “What if Google enters your market?” 

There will always be interest in what the big guys are doing and there’s no greater evidence for that than in our industry - same day delivery.  Whether it’sAmazon’s announcement of utilizing drones or Google’s development in driverless cars, there’s no end to the imagination around how delivery of our items will be performed in the future.   

Investors are forward thinking and they work hard to mitigate risks.  However, in this world were we now consume news in 160 character increments, there is often an overconsumption of headlines without a clear understanding of what is real versus what is perception.  Certainly any news coming out of Google, Amazon or any number companies tackling local delivery is worth tracking.  But spending too much time watching others can lead to us losing focus on executing our own plans.

Am I concerned that drones will soon replace human couriers for package delivery?  Not at all.  I think drones will have a positive impact on agriculture and public safety well before we see the skies filled with delivery drones.  [As part of our public safety announcement regarding the dangers of delivery drones, we distributed the following earlier this year.  We felt the public had the right to know!]

  Am I concerned that driverless cars will soon replace couriers for package delivery?  Nope!  I think driverless cars will find their place in the public transportation sector (moving people) far sooner than moving packages.

As a start up company, with limited resources at our disposal, the Zipments team focuses on the near-term horizon, which for us covers the next three to seven years.  So what innovative breakthrough are we betting on?…certainly nothing to do with automated machines on the roads and in the skies.  We believe a digital network that connects an opt-in, crowd-sourced labor pool of couriers will enable us to access idle capacity of both human and equipment capital to provide the most flexible logistics system available for local delivery.

There are several reasons as to why we are placing our bets in this area…far too many to list here.  However, one of the basic reasons goes back to that same expression of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” 

We believe the most effective solution for serving the rising demand for faster delivery of everything requires us to go back to the same model that has been in effect since the beginning of commerce and human history.  That is, to pay someone a fair wage to move something from point A to point B.  However, what we are fundamentally changing is WHO performs the service, how that person is identified, monitored and rated…and how we set that person up for ongoing success as a courier.  

With the rapid proliferation of smart phone usage in recent years, we are now at a point where we can manage a fluid, mobile digital network like never before.  Which means we can now identify, within seconds, the RIGHT resource (both courier and equipment) for every delivery request that comes through our network.  

It is our belief that the traditional hub and spoke model for distributing packages requires significant upgrades in order for it to support a local delivery system where packages are delivered within hours at a cost acceptable to consumers.  Identifying the optimum courier for each delivery is the key to building out a successful logistics platform.

What we at Zipments define as “the optimum courier” involves a bit of our “secret sauce” so I won’t go into details about that in this post!  Needless to say, we are hard at work scaling what we believe is the best solution for serving a rapidly growing demand for faster delivery of everything. 

We're pleased to announce the introduction of API logs for the Zipments for Developers website.  Developers can now view logs for any requests made using the developer tokens for their application(s).  Requests, responses, headers, and status information are all included, so if you've run into any issues with the API, the logs should be your first stop.

I was driving home this past Sunday after a weekend out of town when my attention was captured by NPR’s TED Radio Hour. During the Radio Hour they match interviews with past TED talks for an interesting dialogue on a variety of topics. The topic that day was happiness. There were a variety of specialists in the field of ‘happiness’ that all had a different opinion on how we can all be happier. Since I am one for simple solutions I was intrigued by the guest that questioned your happiness with ‘Do you find your mind wandering?’ He continued by saying if you do, you probably aren’t happy with what you are doing at that time. If you don’t, you are probably happy.

Being responsible for growing sales at Zipments I have a unique position to balance the happiness of two groups of people, the couriers and the sales team. Some might find it hard to see the similarities between the two, but they both work extremely hard to provide great experiences for our customers, drive the growth of Zipments and both can dictate their own income.

Our professional couriers are independent contractors that wake up every day without a guaranteed income. A scary idea to most of us. To ensure they don’t wander from the Zipments network we continue to increase the number of quality deliveries available every week that are priced to match the value each customer receives. This is where our couriers shine. They continue to elevate our level of service with a solution oriented approach to the natural challenges of the job. They ensure every delivery arrives on time and take the time to build relationships with each customer. Do you remember how it felt the last time you put a smile on someone’s face? Our couriers get to do that 20+ times per day.

Our sales team could sell snake oil if they had to, but fortunately we have standards… and an amazing service. Every morning our sales team shows up happy. We are happy because we know that every business/individual we speak to will have an unbelievable experience interacting with our technology and OUR COURIERS. The experience our couriers provide demonstrates the real value of our community. This translates into well priced deliveries that bring new experienced couriers to us who want a piece of the pie.

Over the past year, we've been quietly rolling out our services in NYC and Chicago and have been refining our offering based on feedback from our clients.  This feedback has helped us create a robust solution for professional service firms, e-commerce companies and individuals in need of personal deliveries.

Today we are excited to announce that we are expanding our product and service offering to now support brick and mortar retailers through our acquisition of NYC-based Hobson

Hobson is a great fit for Zipments as it rounds out our retail offering to include both a totally integrated e-commerce delivery solution and now an "order from store" solution as well.

The key benefits for Zipments include...

The addition of Hobson's 200+ local and national retailers in NYC

A robust fulfillment solution for ship-from-store deliveries

Increased efficiencies within our delivery network based on greater demand density within NYC

The key benefits for Hobson merchants include...

Faster delivery times to customers with Zipments' 1hr and 3hr services

Access to the Zipments API for integration of same day delivery with online shopping sites

A mobile solution for customers to track the real-time status of deliveries

A single delivery service provider to support their stores in NYC, Chicago (and other cities coming soon).

Brick and mortar retailers want to leverage their proximity to their customers as a key advantage against competitors like Amazon. And while services like Google Express and eBay Now provide them with local delivery solutions, these services do little to retain and enhance the relationship between the consumer and the retailer.

Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest delivery days of the year. One of our top NYC couriers, Roz, recounts an unusual delivery from last Valentine’s Day when she served as both courier and counselor to a couple in need of professional help.

My most memorable delivery was for Valentines Day 2013. It was a called-in cash job. I went to pick up the package in the east village and the guy ended up coming out of a car with a huge basket of flowers. The man’s eyes were all puffy, like he had been crying and he was all bent out of shape, looking pretty down in the dumps. He had me walk the flowers across the street to his lady friend’s apartment. He wanted to make sure that the flowers were handed to her in person and that she read the note attached.  I was instructed to report back to him right after I delivered the flowers.

I went into the building, up to her floor and to her apartment door and rang the door bell. She looked to be in the same condition as him. Tissues in hand, eyes soggy and down in the dumps. I informed her of the note and then she proceeded to tear up. I let her have her space, wished her a good day and went outside. I walked over to where the client was waiting.  He was eager to hear the update and l let him know what had happened. He then started crying so I gave him a hug and told him that things will work their way out, they always do.

My Locations

The "My Locations" feature, which we introduced in the Zipments mobile app, is now available on the website as well. This feature makes it easy to save and re-use location details when requesting deliveries.

This feature replaces the previous "Templates" feature that was available on the website. If you were a Templates user, you'll notice that we've already converted any locations within your Templates into saved Locations for you to make the transition easy.

Search

Zipments is happy to announce the beta release of our API and [developer portal](http://developers.zipments.com). The Zipments API provides retailers and developers [REST-ful](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer) access to the couriers participating in our network. In this beta, we've opened up customer-focused endpoints that allow for activities like posting deliveries, monitoring job status, reporting on package destinations, and managing account details or preferred couriers. We're currently assessing the potential for courier based endpoints, which may be in the roadmap for the future.

There is a new trend making its way from people's computers and to their doorsteps each month. It's called subscription commerce - a term that describes businesses based online that let you subscribe to a product that gets delivered to you once (or sometimes twice) each month. 

It's pretty awesome when you think about it. There are things most of us buy every month - or want to. It just makes sense to have those items delivered and not have to worry about when and where to get them.

The interesting thing about subscription commerce companies is that the products are actually not their biggest differentiator. Rather, their biggest asset is the fact that those items are delivered to subscribers at a predictable time each month. Delivery is now one of the top selling points for consumers and that's something we're really interested in.

Now, you can order just about anything in this way (seriously, check out this underwear company). Below are a few subscription commerce companies we think are pretty cool.

Disclaimer: a few of these companies work with us for their local deliveries - so we think they're *exceptionally* awesome (but they actually are).

Blissmo- BREAKbox Based in: San Francisco, CA

The Blissmo BREAKbox helps replace the bag of Doritos by your desk with healthy snacks by regularly delivering a box of great snack foods to your office. Blissmo curates each box based on their criteria of what makes a healthy snack.

Wittlebee Based in: Santa Monica, CA

This kids clothing club delivers a box of fashionable childrens clothes to the doorsteps of parents across the country. Wittlebee helps choose your kid's clothing box based on a survey of styles, colors and sizes.

Doorganics Based in: Grand Rapids, MI

Doorganics delivers organic or sustainably grown vegetables to your home once or twice a month. With this service, you get what you get - whatever local produce is in season. During the winter months, they source vegetables from organic farms in nearby states.

Dollar Shave Club Based in: Santa Monica, CA

If you were within 10 feet of the internet last week, you saw this one. Dollar Shave Club sends subscribers a razor each month. There are three different razors you can choose from, with different features and price points. If you were living in a hole last week and didn't see their video, you should watch it. 

Holiday shopping is awesome, but wouldn't it be great to spend time doing other things you like instead?

Did you know you can save 15 hours this holiday season (on average) by avoiding holiday shopping? Plus, you can help others earn extra money by helping you shop.

How do I ask someone to shop for me?

Go to http://www.zipments.com/jobs/new and fill in the details. Tell the courier (where indicated) how much the item costs and they'll buy it for you. Just list how much you're willing to pay them to buy it for you & deliver it. 

What does it cost?

You can offer whatever price you think is fair. How much effort has to go in? Will they wait in line for hours? Use your judgement - couriers can always counteroffer a price they think is fair. Historically, local deliveries via Zipments are $10-15 when they are within the same city and relatively simple in nature. Consider offering more for more work or distance.

How does payment work?

You only pay when you select someone to do the job. When you select a courier, you enter your credit card or PayPal information.

Couriers are paid 24 hours after the job is completed. If you have any questions about this, email us at support (at) zipments (dot) com.

What if the store doesn't have the item?

Contact Zipments if this happens at support (at) zipments (dot) com. Once we hear from both the customer and the courier, we will cancel the job payment.

Couriers: you may want to call ahead and check on item availability before you bid on the job.

Have other questions? We are available ALWAYS to talk to our customers & couriers!

Email us at support (at) zipments (dot) com!