Online shopping is typically fast and convenient, but what happens after you buy that air fryer or brand new pair of flared jeans? Far too often, this post-purchase experience includes consumers who are constantly checking their tracking notifications just to find out where in the world is their order. Wonderment, a Boston-based startup, is looking to bring transparency to the mysteriously frustrating world of shipping.
Founded in March 2020, Wonderment is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that provides order tracking technology to Shopify brands. With the platform, these stores can proactively send consumers shipping updates through email or text messages, provide support and operations teams with real-time reports of shipping issues and send fully-branded emails with Klayvio.
“We started this company early last year, mostly because of COVID and the supply chain really being disrupted. It destroyed carriers and shipping, which was destroying the reputation for a lot of brands...And so we give [companies] a platform that gives them visibility around shipping so they can create more delightful customer experiences,” said Jessica Meher, CEO of Wonderment.
But providing shipping information for Shopify brands wasn’t the company’s original idea. At first, Wonderment was interested in building an app for Shopify brands intended for upselling and cross-selling products. However, after the company conducted customer interviews, it discovered that shipping and not knowing where their orders were was a huge source of anxiety for consumers. After analyzing the market and competition, the company realized that the only other solutions available were inaccessible for smaller brands, so Wonderment decided to pivot.
And how does Wonderment provide real-time insight into order statuses? Since the company is a Shopify app, the first thing it does is automatically take in all orders and tracking information from a Shopify store. Then, Wonderment connects to carriers, like FedEx and UPS, to receive the most up-to-date tracking information—and this information is consolidated and published on Wonderment’s dashboard. Wonderment also sends the store a report on shipping trends and how its shipments are doing. The Shopify store can then communicate any shipping updates to its customers.
With Wonderment, Shopify stores can also manage shipping issues before they happen. For example, by using stalled shipment reporting, Wonderment will alert stores about shipping delays even before the carrier, allowing brands to proactively notify customers about shipping issues.
However, the Wonderment platform doesn’t stop there, it also has a number of unique integrations for its customers. Meher said, “We focus first and foremost on having the best integrations because the one thing that we learned looking at the space is that a lot of other technologies are closed platforms, which means they don't integrate well. They don't play nice with other tools and they kind of like hold them hostage. We want it to be the opposite of that.”
One of the platform’s integrations, for example, is a plug-in with Klayvio, which allows a store to send personalized and fully-branded emails with shipping notifications, instead of having to use Shopify’s standard shipping alerts.
Meher said, “Klaviyo is another amazing Boston-based startup. They provide marketing automation tools, so very similar to HubSpot, but specifically for e-commerce….So we actually don't have our own internal email tool. We integrate directly with Klaviyo because we discovered that our top customers already all use Klaviyo. So why reinvent the wheel when they can just plug and play with the system they're already using?”
Wonderment is a subscription software that doesn’t require any annual contracts. The company has four plans, including a free plan, and subscribers can cancel at any time. Prices for the other plans range from $20 per month to $80 per month.
And in terms of next steps, Meher said Wonderment is trying to “grow, grow, grow, grow.”
“We have a lot that we want to build. And we have a small team, so we're hiring. And, you know, we just have big, big dreams ahead of us. And now we just need to execute. So the focus right now is build—build a great product, build a great business, continue to learn and continue to grow from here,” she said.
