If you’ve spent any time as a buyer or seller on eBay, you’ll know the sinking feeling you get when you see something listed as ‘collection only’. For sellers, maybe you’ve decided not to list a large item in the knowledge that it won’t get as much attention as perhaps a listing a smaller item with the words FREE DELIVERY glaring at you will attract.
When buying or selling anything larger than a parcel, it can be difficult to see past the belief that there’ll be a lot of effort involved in moving the item to where it needs to be.
In the last few years, there have been several companies made to address problems like this by putting the delivery in the hands of someone else. One of those companies is Shiply, which has been around since 2008 to make getting your things from A-B something you don’t need to waste your time thinking about. For anything larger than a small parcel, list it on Shiply and let the quotes come into your inbox, and avoid the boredom of calling up courier companies individually in search of hypothetical quotes whilst becoming increasingly annoyed with the sound of your own voice.
As well as saving you time by compiling courier quotes in one place, Shiply can also save you a lot of money, and is kinder for the environment. Transport companies quoting on your item are typically going in that direction anyway, so your item will be filling space that would otherwise be wasted. This saves you up to 75% compared to standard delivery rates, and prevents putting another vehicle onto the road and contributing to the high air pollution rates that are being talked about in the news so frequently at the moment.
Transport companies registered with Shiply are from all sorts of specialisms – some are boat transportation specialists, car transport specialists, pet transport specialists and even piano moving specialists. Others are delivery companies in the area with spare space for your bouncy castle or new computer to fit into. If it is an eBay item, the process is made even easier by putting in the URL of the product and Shiply will enter the item’s details onto the listing automatically – all you’ll need to enter are the ‘from’ and ‘to’ addresses.
Once the listing is up, just wait for the quotes to come in.
The existence of Shiply solves several problems at the same time: making more deliveries happen without adding to the decline of the environment, allowing transport companies to make extra money without adding much more time to their schedules, saving customers money by not having a delivery company effectively carpool their item, and having ‘local collection’ and ‘collection only’ be a nuisance of the past.
Feature image: Sunset Removals, (CC BY 2.0), Flickr