Choosing an order fulfilment company can be a daunting task. With so many choices available, it is hard to pick the right fit. There’s a lot to consider like coverage, support, reliability, individual features, and integration – for the inexperienced user, it is all confusing.
To help you choose a fulfilment partner, this post compares two of China’s leading third-party shipping companies: Nextsmartship and Easyship.
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Integration
- Customer support
- Coverage
- Functionality
- Packaging
- Services
- Inventory Management
- Conclusion
Overview
Easyship
Easyship is a shipping company that connects market sellers and market places to couriers. The company has a multinational team that operates from offices in Europe, the United States of America, and Asia, and it works diligently to provide effective shipping solutions for eCommerce. It was launched in Hong Kong in 2014 and expanded its reach to Singapore at toward the end of 2016.
Nextsmartship
Nextsmartship is a Chinese order fulfilment company with fulfilment centres in Hong Kong, China, Europe, and the United States. The company is based in Shenzhen, China, and it offers high-quality crowdfunding support, e-commerce and subscription box fulfilment, and FBA preparation services.
Integration
Easyship excels at compatibility. the company has integrations for about 20 platforms that include
- Amazon
- BigCommerce
- ChannelAdvisor
- eBay
- Etsy
- Jumia
- Groupon
- Lazada
- Magento
- Linio
- WooCommerce
- Weebly
- Shopify
- Shopify Plus
There is also an option to request integrations for apps that aren’t included in their list.
Nextsmartship offers several integrations too, but it lacks the variety that Easyship offers. their integrations include
- Amazon
- eBay
- Etsy
- Walmart
- Magento
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Big commerce
- WordPress
- OpenCart
- Prestashop
- Squarespace.
What Nextsmartship lacks in variety, they make up for in support. They promise to provide custom integrations for clients whose platforms aren’t currently supported.
Customer support
Easyship runs a comprehensive knowledge base that covers every conceivable topic on how to get started with their service. There’s also a form to submit requests if you encounter an issue that’s not covered in their help centre.
Easyship’s knowledge base is easy to use. Its topics are conveniently categorized, and there’s inbuilt search functionality so you can quickly jump to a specific subject. Unfortunately, this is the only support system clients have unless they upgrade to top-tier subscription plans.
Easyship does not provide any means for customers to clients to contact them directly for urgent queries, and on many occasions, they may take a while to answer emails. Although their support team is often helpful, the time delay can be frustrating.
Nextsmartship has live-chat, a blog, a knowledge base, and one-on-one client support. Each client is assigned a personal manager upon registration, so there’s the assurance of a quick, relevant, and practical response whenever you have a problem. There’s no need to struggle with day-to-day logistics management operations. You can leave this to your customer manager, and they’ll handle the details while you focus on your business.
The Nextsmartship knowledge centre covers helpful topics like getting started, integrations, inventory and product management, pricing, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Like Easyship, the Nextsmartship knowledge centre is highly organized, and it has search functionality.
If you’re new to the Nextsmartship website, for quick queries, you may use the company’s live chat option. They typically reply within a few minutes.
Coverage
Nextsmartship covers more than 200 countries and regions. With fulfilment centres at all major business hubs around the world, you can rest assured that the company has the capacity and capability to deliver on its promise.
In contrast, Easyship has much smaller coverage. The service only offers full support for six countries: The United States of America, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and the UK. Depending on your region, you may still be permitted to register an account. However, you must have your own courier. Also, each user account is limited to one country. If you intend to ship from several origin points, you’ll need to create an account for each.
Functionality
Both Easyship and Nextsmartship offer simple, intuitive, and effective shipping software interfaces.
Furthermore, both offer proprietary software that simplifies order management by replacing the complicated tabulation often found in manual systems with simple automated features.
The critical difference between Nextsmartship and Easyship in terms of their functionality is the level of support provided. While Easyship limits direct call support to enterprise and premier accounts, all Nextsmartship subscribers get dedicated support for their accounts.
Packaging
Nextsmartship offers custom packaging services to help entrepreneurs grow their brands. Its service is convenient – the company handles packaging supplier selection, and it can take unique printed packing and packaging kit. Their packaging is environmentally friendly – Nextsmartship only uses FSC certified cartons composed of biodegradable materials. In contrast, Easyship does not have a packaging service. Clients are expected to package their own products, and although the Easyship offers helpful guides on how to do so, it is not as convenient as Nextsmartship.
Services
Nextsmartship offers eCommerce fulfilment, drop-shipping fulfilment, subscription box fulfilment, FBA prep services, and cargo forwarding.
Its services are enhanced by seamless integration and an easy to use inventory management dashboard. They are also globally available, and if you have merchandise in china, you’ll get 60 days free storage at their local fulfilment centres.
Although Easyship offers eCommerce fulfilment and crowdfunding support, it does not provide drop shipping fulfilment, subscription box fulfilment, and FBA preparation services.
Inventory management
Nextsmartship has a relatively stable track record on inventory management. Its system lets you manage all your operations from a central dashboard – even when you have stores and suppliers in different locations. The stock levels auto-update, so you’ll avoid inventory shortages.
Easyship requires subscribers to set up separate accounts for each country in which they operate, and even though its process is automated, it is prone to failure.
Conclusion
Both Nextsmartship and Easyship are great platforms with exciting features. Easyship has a variety of integrations and offers for first-time users that make it an attractive fulfillment solution. However, Nextsmartship provides more services, and with support for over 200 countries, it has more comprehensive coverage. Based on the features and services reviewed, Nextsmartship is a better fulfillment partner.
