You’ll find me saying frequently, that often the best way to stumble upon your next great business idea is to simply run into an issue you face yourself and develop the solution.
And Thomas Bertrand’s business story is no different.
In 2003, he left France determined to make a life in Japan, and through his blog, started his Shopify-integrated bento store Bento&co. With his love for Japanese culture and a keen discernment for customer acquisition, it grew quickly, and he began to run into shipping nightmares daily with all of the new orders. So, in 2017 he invented Ship&co – the first platform in Japan that would integrate Shopify with local shipping carriers, and speed up the entire labelling process. Today, Ship&co continues to expand, working with FedEx, UPS, and DHL to provide a smooth shipping process for Shopify customers everywhere.
Allow me to introduce Thomas Bertrand…
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I’ve been living in the awesome city of Kyoto, Japan since 2003 and started my Shopify journey in 2008 with my store, Bento&co. We’re all about exporting cool Japanese kitchenware to over 100 countries, working with both B2B and B2C customers. Besides our physical store in Kyoto, which we opened in 2012, I also founded Ship&co, a SAAS platform that connects carriers and ecommerce platforms. Ship&co has been on the Shopify App Store since 2017.
Ship&co is a game-changer in Japan – it’s the first online solution that connects with the country’s three biggest shipping carriers: Yamato, Sagawa, and JapanPost. Plus, we’re tight with FedEx, UPS, and DHL, helping to digitize the labeling process and making it easier for sellers and 3PL to ship orders faster.
It all started when I moved from France to Japan in 2003 for my studies, and I just couldn’t bring myself to leave this amazing place. So, in 2005, I started a blog to share my experiences and thoughts about Japan and Kyoto. That’s what got me into selling online, initially to my blog readers, and it just kind of snowballed from there. I realized how much I loved working online and decided to keep at it, which led me to where I am today!
So, when we started selling online with Bento&co, we noticed shipping was eating up hours of our day, every day. We couldn’t find any app in Japan that could connect our Shopify store with local carriers – so we decided to make one ourselves! That’s how Ship&co was born. At first, it was just to fix our own shipping headaches, but it turned into a whole new adventure in the world of SaaS.
We initially made it for our own use, particularly to help out the folks in the warehouse so they could easily print shipping labels and save some precious time. Then we started chatting with friends about it, getting feedback from other sellers, and really listening to what they had to say.
From the get-go, we had a pretty sweet UI that made the app super user-friendly. But there’s always room for improvement! So we’ve been constantly working on making it even better, tweaking things here and there, and just never stopping our quest for the ultimate shipping solution.
Launching both Bento&co and Ship&co was a pretty organic process, if you ask me. I had this gut feeling that I had something valuable to offer: unique products like bento boxes and Japanese kitchenware for Bento&co, and a super useful SaaS solution for Ship&co.
It just felt right to put them out there, start talking about them, and give it my all to sell these awesome things. Sometimes you’ve just got to trust your instincts and go for it. And that’s exactly what I did with both of these ventures.
What’s really worked for us in attracting and keeping customers is providing top-notch customer support and making the onboarding process a breeze.
I absolutely loved reading Shoe Dog – such a powerful story. The Unofficial Shopify Podcast has also been super helpful, always providing great insights and tips.
But one book that really made a lasting impact on me is Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. It just remind us of how important sleep is if we want to live a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling life. It’s something we can all benefit from, both personally and professionally!
The past 3 years during the COVID situation have been quite the learning experience for Ship&co. It’s helped us focus on what really matters, both for our app’s tech side and for our users. Thanks to these lessons, we’ve got a clear vision of where we need to go in the future.
We’re excited to keep evolving, adapting, and improving our app to make it the best it can be, all while continuing to serve and support our awesome users every step of the way. The future’s looking bright!
Absolutely! If you truly believe you have a solution to a problem, don’t hesitate – just go for it. Also, it’s important to focus on finding customers first before getting too caught up in the details of potential issues. By understanding your customers and their needs, you can refine your solution and address the most relevant problems. So, stay passionate, be persistent, and always keep your customers in mind – that’s the key to success when you’re just starting out.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-bertrand-shipandco/
Email: Thomas @ Shipandco.com
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