10 years of Sendcloud: the road to groundbreaking shipping for e-commerce

Exactly 10 years ago, shipping was still considered one of the biggest stumbling blocks for e-commerce businesses. A time-consuming shipping process and the lack of a suitable solution on the market inspired founders Rob, Bas and Sabi to start Sendcloud. A decade later, it’s time to take a look inside our rocket and look back together on 10 years of innovation. Here is our trip down memory lane!

3, 2, 1….. Lift off! The rise of Sendcloud

Did you know that around 500 star players work at Sendcloud today? Along the way, employees started calling Sendcloud a rocket. Why? We simply know no limits at Sendcloud. Our goal is to grow and succeed together, and we do it at high speed.

Let’s take a look at what has been achieved in a decade.

Where it all began

Our three founders are not just business partners, they have also been good friends for a long time.

While they were still students, they had their own webshop selling smartphone accessories. Keeping the webshop afloat was tough because of fierce competition and low profit margins. How could they survive when shipping costs were so high and every shipping label had to be created manually?

After endlessly searching Google and various forums for a solution, they found out that there simply wasn’t one. So they thought “Fuck it, let’s build something ourselves!”. They asked a friend to join them on the adventure. He became Sendcloud’s first developer.

The only thing left to arrange was a contract with a carrier, so the first integration with their shop system could be built.

The power of partnerships

No carriers, no shipping solution

In their early twenties, it was quite a challenge to get a meeting with the bosses of the big delivery companies. So they first tried working with smaller partners of the big companies. But the largest national carrier didn’t agree and made things very difficult for the guys.

“Luckily, we knew a nephew of the CFO of PostNL. We made him a nice offer of 150 euros and a crate of beer in exchange for getting us around the table with his uncle, haha. His uncle eventually emailed and put us in touch with the e-commerce director. That’s how it all started.” | Rob van den Heuvel, CEO of Sendcloud

Hopes of a good offer weren’t high, but when PostNL visited the founders in their so-called “office” (read: the home of one of their parents), they made them a great offer that allowed them to give the first users a discount. DHL quickly followed after that first success. The first version of Sendcloud was born, connecting order data from Magento and WooCommerce with PostNL and DHL.

With higher consumer expectations and a growing number of users, it eventually became more and more important to connect even more carriers. A multi-carrier solution and direct integrations with various shop systems and marketplaces became the solid foundation of our platform.

It also became possible to use Sendcloud discounted rates and upload your own shipping contracts. The hybrid approach, which combines both, still helps many online retailers ship as efficiently as possible today.

Now, 10 years later, we have managed to integrate more than 80 carriers from all over Europe. We have even developed a solution that enables carriers to integrate with Sendcloud themselves.

“Because Sendcloud has a large network of carriers, you can ship flexibly and scale easily.” | Lars Ackerman, Bloomon

The Sendcloud tribe

No partners, no success! We learned that in the early days of our start-up. That’s why we have an internal team responsible for building and maintaining partner relationships. Whether it’s SaaS solutions for e-commerce or digital agencies and platforms, we share one common goal: we want to help online retailers grow!

With that mindset, we keep expanding the Sendcloud tribe and have now built more than 60 integrations with various shop systems, marketplaces, WMS and ERP systems and even payment solutions, to solve the hassle of return costs.

“We realized early on that partnerships complement our own products and services. A perfect way to grow broader and faster than others. For us, partnerships are about more than profit. It’s about building a community that people want to be part of.” | Roland Jansen, Global Head of Partnerships at Sendcloud

From automatic label creation to revolutionizing the shipping process

With the right ingredients, we wanted to develop the best possible solution to make shipping as easy as possible. But this is easier said than done. Let’s dive into the Sendcloud platform and discover what we have developed to handle shipping from A to Z.

One click of a button

Our first, and still most appreciated, platform feature is label creation. It lets businesses that connect their online sales channels to Sendcloud print shipping labels with one click. An error-free way to generate shipping labels.

Even with a “simple” solution like this, innovation is possible. Sendcloud’s shipping rules were introduced years later and automate label creation even further. They can be set up with an “if this (and this), then that” scenario, which is then automatically applied to all future orders that meet the relevant criteria.

“What started as a simple online portal for creating shipping labels for Dutch carriers has now grown into a comprehensive all-in-one solution for automating logistics at scale. We have successfully served customers while going through rapid growth as a company. Now we serve significantly more, and larger, businesses and have successfully expanded to 8 different countries.” | Tim Drijvers, CTO at Sendcloud

Making tracking updates sexy

The first extra feature added to shipping label generation was the option to send branded tracking emails with updates on the delivery status. Tracking emails were sent to customers automatically based on the carriers’ shipping status. This meant manual work was no longer needed.

Over time, we have kept improving this feature. Today, the emails look incredibly fancy, if we do say so ourselves. In addition to the emails, we also introduced a tracking page to give online retailers free marketing opportunities when interacting with their customers. We now also offer automatic updates for delayed parcels, which can save your customer service team a lot of time during peak periods. To top it all off, you can even make it snow on the tracking page during the holidays. Pretty cool, right?

“Since we implemented Sendcloud, our customer reviews have improved and the number of questions to our customer service has dropped.” | Marijn Soetekouw, Online Manager at Boots

The road to flexible delivery: service points

Another feature that followed was delivery to service points. Many carriers offered this shipping method to save costs, become more environmentally friendly and reduce the number of missed delivery attempts. If you use Sendcloud, you can add service point delivery as an option in your checkout. This gives your customers more flexibility in choosing their shipping method and ensures their parcel can be delivered without them having to be at home.

When you activate service point delivery, your customers can choose their preferred service point for delivery in the checkout.

Pick, pack and ship in no time with Pack & Go

As online stores grow, one thing is certain: the way orders are processed changes. WMS and ERP systems are brought in and orders are picked and packed as quickly as possible. Linking shipping into this process isn’t always easy. That’s why we developed a way to combine the pick and pack process with the label creation process. Pack & Go was born, a way to connect the picking and packing process with the label creation process. It lets you print pick lists and packing slips, after which you scan the barcode to generate the right shipping label.

Over time, the feature has been improved. It’s even possible to add instructions for the right boxes to the picking process. That way, we aim to streamline the entire process, since picking, packing and shipping orders all go hand in hand.

“I used to spend 10 hours processing 20 parcels. With Sendcloud, our warehouse can now process 2,000 parcels a day.” | Mareike Peters, Founder and CEO of nkm

A solution to the biggest problem: returns

Without a suitable returns solution, businesses have to go through a time-consuming process that costs a lot of money, and products often end up in the trash. That’s why it was our mission to find a solution that would help many online retailers.

We decided to develop a branded returns portal that automates the entire returns process. Online businesses set up the portal once and define the requirements for returning an item. When consumers then want to return an item, they can easily do it themselves.

The latest development in this feature is that we make it possible to have consumers pay for the return shipment. An integration with payment service provider Mollie ensures returns can be paid for within the returns portal. All you still need to do as an online retailer is track the status of the return and process it in your warehouse.

“Our customers can register their returns themselves through the returns portal. Not only does this lead to higher customer satisfaction, but our back office can now focus on more important matters.” | Rick Harink, Head of Sales & Operations at Bunzlau Castle

The numbers speak for themselves: analytics

Online businesses generate a lot of data about the shipping process, but often fail to make use of it. This is where analytics comes in!

Sendcloud’s Analytics dashboard shows shipping data, as well as statistics per carrier and sales channel (if multiple sales channels are connected to Sendcloud).

If the returns portal is activated, the Analytics dashboard also shows trends in return rates and provides insight into the reasons for returns. It’s also possible to export the data in bulk. New in this feature is that you can now receive data insights automatically through email updates.

“I’m a fan of the Analytics dashboard that gives us insight into all our orders and their statuses. It gives us valuable information about our shipments and returns over time!” | Nicolas Hernandez, Co-founder of Pétrone

Higher conversion rates and more sales with the dynamic checkout feature

One of the newest Sendcloud features is the dynamic checkout feature. Your customers often drop off at checkout if the right shipping method is missing or shipping is too expensive. With the dynamic checkout feature, you decide which shipping zones and methods you want to activate in the checkout, and Sendcloud does the rest.

Your customers can choose the shipping method that suits them best, and orders are automatically imported with the right shipping method. The backend then shows when an order needs to be processed and shipped. Super easy, right?

https://www.sendcloud.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/NL-Dynamic-Checkout-explainer-animation.mp4

One platform for all your needs

Do you have your own webshop, or do you want to use the benefits of Sendcloud without having to use the platform itself? Welcome to the Sendcloud API! It gives any business or external solution access to our various features and capabilities.

Separate APIs are available for: shipping labels, service points, shipping products, returns portal, tracking, pickup, dynamic checkout and returns V3. Want to know more? Check out this help center article for detailed information about the many APIs we offer.

“At Hive, we use the Sendcloud API to connect with carriers and create shipping labels. We are always looking for ways to expand our delivery options to meet all our customers’ needs and scale quickly into new markets.” | Oskar Ziegler, CEO and founder of Hive

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Entering new markets to centralize a fragmented parcel network

It wasn’t easy to offer a central solution for a fragmented parcel network. That’s why Sendcloud quickly entered new markets. It started with the launch in Belgium and Germany, followed by five other markets. We are currently active in eight countries in Europe.

The European shipping market is still highly fragmented. Each carrier offers different shipping methods, and prices are incredibly high when you cross the border. On top of that, when shipping across borders it can be very difficult to offer the same level of service as when shipping domestically, even within the same customs union. That’s why, with more integrations and connections with various carriers, we are on a mission to unite the European parcel network.

That all sounds great, but what does it actually mean? We want to make it as easy as possible to connect with carriers across Europe, while offering local and flexible delivery methods for online retailers. The Easy Returns Solution is an example of this. With the Easy Returns Solution, we make it possible to drop off returns at the nearest post office, even if the item was originally delivered by a different carrier. See how it works here.

No success without a house full of talent

Remember the star players mentioned in the introduction of this article? Well, we wouldn’t be where we are today without the right people on board. One of Sendcloud’s core values is to grow and win together. We’re proud of a number of our OGs who have grown and built entire teams. From working in customer service to becoming a recruiter and creating the House of Talent we have today. How cool is that? We’re also happy with all the new talent joining us every month. They bring new expertise to take the platform to the next level.

Many milestones have been reached, and that wouldn’t have been possible without hiring the right talent.

“Because Sendcloud is an unconventional company, the House of Talent and Talent Magic team is there to look beyond the traditional and search for the original.” | Isabeau Bruno, Head of Talent Magic at Sendcloud

In just 5 years, we have grown from 50 to almost 500 employees. They all work hard to optimize processes and to develop and improve new features.

They all have the same goal in mind: making sure all online businesses can focus on what matters most, which is growing their own business without wasting time on shipping.

In closing

None of these developments would have been possible without investment. That’s why we want to thank our investors for their trust and for sharing their expertise: Startupbootcamp, TiiN Capital, BOM (Brabantse Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij), HenQ, AXA Ventures, Bonsai Partners, SoftBank, L Catterton, and HPE Growth.

And last but definitely not least, we want to thank all our customers! Without you, our success wouldn’t have been possible. With your input and trust, we can keep developing Sendcloud and continue growing together.

Here’s to the next 10 years of innovation!

How much time can you save on shipping?