Shipping is one of the most time consuming and expensive parts of running a webshop. The level of efficiency in these processes can be critical for success. And it’s exactly these parts where small and medium sized webshops and SME’s are faced with a competitive disadvantage in logistics. Usually they don’t have the expertise and resources to develop software to optimize efficiency and they lack the shipping volume to negotiate sharp shipping rates.
That’s exactly the problem PakketMail solves. We offer highly efficient, flexible and integrated multi-carrier shipping software combined with logistic related customer support and steeply discounted shipping rates with renowned carriers. PakketMail saves its customers time and money on a daily basis.
But that’s not how PakketMail started. Early 2011, Jorn and Mark where fellow students at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Jorn had contacts at a carrier and Mark was running a webshop in fishing reels and knew the hassle and the price of shipping all too well. Obviously, the combination was easily made. We started PakketMail as a single carrier re-seller business. Soon we noticed a huge gap in what shipping software offered and what our customers needed. Most shipping software is overloaded with features most users don’t need, that makes it very unfriendly and inefficient. Don’t even start about all the legacy systems out there. We also believed in the value of multi-carrier shipping, as this would allow our customers to benefit from the sweet-spot each carrier has. We made the decision to develop our own shipping software, tailored to the needs of our customers. Easier said than done if you can’t code…Fortunately we were able to add Martin to our team, a very versatile and experienced programmer. That’s when things took off.
What a ride it has been, many highs and probably as many lows as well, but that’s the beauty of entrepreneurship. Still a three men show, running a business in the Netherlands, with international potential. We are trying to solve a problem that over half a million small companies encounter in an industry with tens of billions in turnover on yearly basis in Europe alone.
And here we are, a good year and a half later. Delighted and excited to be one of the startups selected for the Lisbon Challenge Spring ’15 class. It feels like the day we started, because that’s what it is. A new start, a new opportunity, new challenges to tackle in order take PakketMail to the next level.
Our next step: the Lisbon Challenge. Just a couple of weeks ahead. Thrilled to meet the team, the other startups, the mentors and equally thrilled to work hard, boost PakketMail and prepare for the steps that will follow. Because the road to change will be long, hard and challenging and we are ready for the journey.
Looking forward to meet you all in Lisbon!
Jorn & Mark