Shipping Peace of Mind with ShipAid

ShipAid is a Shopify platform application that lets sellers provide assurances against lost, stolen, or damaged shipments.

Is there anything more disappointing than ordering a package and it never shows up? Lost or damaged shipments are bad for consumers and bad for businesses.

We sat down with ShipAid Founder Stefan Alexiev to learn more about the founding of ShipAid, the customers it serves, and the tech stack the application is built on.

Let’s dive right in!

ShipAid is a Shopify app that gives sellers and buyers easy shipping peace of mind

Railway: How did you stumble on the idea for ShipAid? It seems like a great idea to allow Shopify store owners to collect a bit of extra revenue while also giving their customers peace of mind.

Stefan: The idea for ShipAid came from a personal experience I had with running an ecommerce store and just being an online shopper.

I had ordered a high-value item that got lost in transit, and dealing with the shipping company to resolve the issue was a nightmare.

This made me realize how common this problem is and how it impacts both consumers and businesses. I wanted to create a solution that not only mitigates these issues but also allows merchants to turn this pain point into an opportunity to provide better service and earn additional revenue.

The Orders view in ShipAid provides a place for Sellers to look at orders and shipping guarantees

Railway: Shopify stores now power a sizeable chunk of all online ecommerce. Was building a Shopify app always the plan or did you find your way to it?

Stefan: Building a Shopify app was always the plan because Shopify has a massive and growing user base. It’s one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, which made it the perfect starting point for ShipAid.

Shopify’s robust API and developer tools also made it easier to integrate our solution and provide a seamless experience for merchants and their customers. We have also built multiple Apps and successful stores on Shopify in the past, giving us a deep understanding of the platform and the needs of its users.

The ShipAid dashboard provides conversion rates and other useful metrics for tracking order success

Railway: It’s always surprising to learn about consumer checkout behavior. What have you learned from building ShipAid that you didn’t know before about the psychology of someone buying a product online?

Stefan: One of the most interesting insights we gained was how much consumers value peace of mind. When given the option to add a delivery guarantee, 70% of customers choose to opt-in.

This indicates that consumers are willing to pay a little extra to ensure their purchase arrives safely, which in turn increases their overall satisfaction and trust in the brand.

Additionally, we've noticed that clear communication about the benefits of the guarantee can boost conversion rates by over 20% during checkout.

Railway: Can you tell us a little bit about what your tech stack looks like? It’s nontrivial to provide real-time shipping updates, notifications, customer portal, etc. What’s the basic architecture of your product?

Stefan: ShipAid’s tech stack is designed to handle the complexities of real-time shipping updates, notifications, and customer interactions efficiently. Here’s an overview of the key components:

Frontend:

• React.js: Used for building dynamic and responsive user interfaces for the customer portal where users can file claims, track their shipments, and receive notifications.
• Netlify: Hosts the frontend assets, providing a fast and reliable content delivery network (CDN) for serving the application to users.

Backend:

• AdonisJS: A robust Node.js web framework used to build the backend services, handling API requests, business logic, and communication with various services.
• Nhost: Provides a backend-as-a-service (BaaS) solution, offering a GraphQL API, authentication, and database services. Nhost simplifies the development process by managing the infrastructure and providing out-of-the-box backend functionalities.

Database:

• PostgreSQL: A reliable relational database used to store user data, claims, shipping information, and other critical data.
• Redis: Used as a message broker for handling real-time events and notifications.

Third-party Integrations:

• Shopify API: Integration to interact with Shopify stores, allowing seamless data exchange and operations.

CI/CD:

• Railway’s CI/CD Pipelines: Automates the building, testing, and deployment of the application, ensuring quick and reliable updates.

The Resolution flow in ShipAid makes it easy to resolve customer issues

Railway: Can you say more about how Railway is used? We’d love to hear about how Railway helps ShipAid protect people’s packages.

Stefan: Railway plays a crucial role in the development, deployment, and maintenance of ShipAid’s application. Here’s how Railway supports ShipAid in protecting people’s packages:

• Simplified Deployment: Railway provides a streamlined process for deploying ShipAid’s applications and databases. This allows the development team to focus on building features rather than managing infrastructure.
• Automated CI/CD Pipelines: Railway’s CI/CD pipelines automate the entire process of building, testing, and deploying the application. This ensures that new features, updates, and bug fixes can be rolled out quickly and reliably without manual intervention.
• Monitoring and Alerts: Railway offers built-in monitoring and alerting tools that help ShipAid maintain high availability and performance. Any issues are quickly detected and addressed, minimizing downtime and ensuring a smooth user experience.
• Security: Railway’s platform incorporates best practices for security, ensuring that the application and data are protected against unauthorized access and breaches. This is critical for maintaining customer trust and compliance with data protection regulations.

By leveraging Railway’s capabilities, ShipAid can efficiently manage its tech stack and focus on enhancing its core functionalities, ultimately providing a reliable service that protects people’s packages and offers peace of mind to its users.

Railway: If our readers would like to get started learning about ShipAid, where should they go?

Stefan: To get started with ShipAid, readers can visit our website where they can find more information about our features, customer testimonials, and sign up completely for free. We don’t charge a monthly fee or onboarding costs, only a small revenue share.

For a more hands-on introduction, we offer demo sessions that can be booked directly through our site.