20 Things You Didn’t Know about Deliverr

Deliverr is a startup involved in e-commerce. However, it is important to note that it isn’t a retailer in its own right. Instead, it exists for the purpose of helping retailers with their logistics. On the whole, Deliverr seems to have found a promising niche for itself. For proof, look no further than the fact that another round of successful fund-raising had enabled it to increase its valuation to $2 billion in November of 2021. Something that is rather remarkable to say the least.

1. Is a Fulfillment Company

Deliverr is a fulfillment company. This means that it assists its customers with getting their goods to their customers. Something that is important but nonetheless overlooked by consumers because we see little of those processes compared to the results of those processes. Of course, that changes when fulfillment companies start messing up because that has a very negative and very immediate effect on our day-to-day lives.

2. Is a Fulfillment Company that Specializes in Assisting E-Commerce Operations

A wide range of businesses in a wide range of industries make use of fulfillment companies. After all, anyone that sells physical goods needs some way of getting those goods to their customers. Unfortunately, the processes needed to do so are expensive, particularly if the delivery is either long-distance, international, or otherwise more difficult. As such, businesses that are either unable or unwilling to handle those processes on their own need to entrust them to fulfillment companies of one kind or another in much the same manner that they might outsource other components of their revenue-earning operations. Under those circumstances, it makes sense for fulfillment companies to specialize, thus making them more capable of competing in their chosen niche. In Deliverr’s case, it specializes in helping out e-commerce operations.

3. Aimed At Smaller E-Commerce Operations

To be exact, Deliverr is aimed at smaller e-commerce operations. One might assume that bigger e-commerce operations have their own processes, meaning that there is no need for them to seek out help. However, it is common for bigger e-commerce operations to cover up gaps in their own processes through the use of fulfillment companies, with the result that there is room in the market for fulfillment companies focused upon their needs. Deliverr isn’t one of those fulfillment companies because its focus lies elsewhere.

4. Can Help Out Those Selling On E-Commerce Platforms

There are a lot of people out there who choose to sell through well-established e-commerce platforms. This makes sense because this is much more convenient than setting up their own e-commerce platforms. Furthermore, this makes it possible for them to reach more potential customers than otherwise possible. Something that can translate into faster sales as well as more lucrative sales. Much of Deliverr is focused on helping out these people.

5. Based Out of San Francisco

Unsurprisingly, Deliverr is based out of San Francisco. After all, the nature of its business means that it is connected with a lot of tech companies as well as a lot of companies that are involved with tech in some way, thus making this a natural choice. Having said that, the nature of its business means that its operations are also spread out in a way that wouldn’t make sense for a lot of tech companies. There are serious limits to what even the best tech can and can’t do, meaning that it wouldn’t be able to operate very well without having multiple facilities in multiple locations.

6. Co-Founded By Harish Abbott

One of Deliverr’s co-founders is Harish Abbott. Currently, he is serving as Deliverr’s CEO, meaning that he is responsible for the company’s overall direction.

7. Abbott Was On Quora

Amusingly, Abbott was on Quora, which is a platform where users can ask questions before getting answers from other users. As such, it has a reputation for being somewhat unreliable in a lot of places because people can claim expertise and experience on specific topics without necessarily possessing those things. Having said that, Abbott’s answers stuck to the fields where he does actually possess considerable knowledge, though perhaps unsurprisingly, he also took opportunities to bring up his company whenever that was appropriate.

8. Abbott Separated Business Components Into Core and Critical

Abbott has penned an article in which he separated business components into those that could be considered core and those that could be considered critical. The core is that which enabled the business to become business, which is presumably that which enables the business to remain a business. Meanwhile, the critical is that which is, well, critical for the business’s continuing success but is nonetheless secondary to its core counterpart.

9. Abbott Used Netflix to Illustrate His Point

In that article, Abbott used Netflix to illustrate his point. Essentially, Netflix’s core is its content. Without that content, people wouldn’t bother with the streaming service. This is why Netflix put so much effort into securing content from media companies. Similarly, this is the reason that the streaming service poured so much money into making its own content even before everyone started launching their own competitors, thus enabling it to survive the loss of so much content. Meanwhile, the speed and the quality of the content that was delivered to the consumers would be considered critical. They are still very important for the success of the streaming service, but they aren’t as fundamental in their importance.

10. Abbott Suggests Outsourcing Critical Components

Abbott went on to suggest entrusting critical components to reliable partners. It isn’t hard to see why he would make that suggestion considering that Deliverr exists to satisfy exactly such needs. However, Abbott does make a good point. Every business operates with limited resources, meaning that every business needs to choose its priorities. By entrusting critical components to reliable partners, they can focus their efforts on their core, which is what really enables them to stand out from their competitors. Simultaneously, the use of reliable partners means that they can still get good results at much reduced cost.

11. Co-Founded By Michael Krakaris

Deliverr was also co-founded by Michael Krakaris. Said individual doesn’t hold the same position as Abbott. However, Krakaris has received a fair amount of public interest because he is quite a bit younger than Abbott. To be exact, he is young enough that he managed to make the 30 Under 30 list for both Forbes and Inc., which is no small accomplishment.

12. Krakaris Penned an Article Examining Uber and Amazon

Krakaris has penned an article in which he examined Uber and Amazon. These aren’t the most similar of companies that can be found out there. One does ride-sharing. Meanwhile, the other does e-commerce, streaming, and various kinds of tech-related services. Indeed, Krakaris made a mention of their differences. However, what makes the article interesting is that he also pointed out a similarity that might be indicative of a broader trend.

13. Krakaris Thinks that Their Faster Growth in 2011 Was No Coincidence

In short, Krakaris made mention of how both Uber and Amazon Prime saw massive growth in 2011. This was the case even though Uber had started up in 2009 while Amazon Prime had started up in 2005. To an extent, Krakaris believed that this was because Uber had a much reduced need for assets. Simply put, said company can get away with relatively little infrastructure because of the nature of its business. In contrast, Amazon couldn’t do the same when it came to Amazon Prime because said service wouldn’t work without the fulfillment infrastructure needed to carry out everything. As such, Uber was able to start hitting high growth sooner than Amazon. Having said that, Deliverr thinks that there was something deeper to the whole thing as well.

14. Krakaris Thinks that Both Companies Fueled an Expectation of Instant Gratification

Specifically, Krakaris thinks that both companies fueled an expectation of instant gratification on the part of their users. As a result, even though they didn’t set out to do so, they caused people to become more receptive to each other’s services as well as other companies that offered the same kind of speed. Thanks to that, Uber and Amazon’s momentum fed one another, thus causing them to see explosive growth in 2011.

15. Krakaris Believes that Fulfillment Companies Will Be Extremely Important in the Next Phase of Retail

Due to this, Krakaris believes that fulfillment companies will play an extremely important role in the continuing evolution of retail. Essentially, customers becoming used to instant gratification meant a need for everyone to catch up. This can be seen in how a number of major companies such as Google and Walmart started working on similar capabilities at around the same time. That meant opportunities for fulfillment companies. Simultaneously, smaller businesses came under the same sort of pressure. Something that created further opportunities for fulfillment companies that can help out at a small portion of the cost of setting up their own fulfillment infrastructure.

16. Has Benefited From the COVID-19 Crisis

Naturally, Deliverr benefited from the COVID-19 crisis. Simply put, the lockdown, the desire to minimize human interaction, and other factors combined to bring about a massive surge in online sales, which in turn, meant a massive surge in everything needed to make those online sales possible. Deliverr was already well-established by that point in time, thus putting it in a good position to capitalize on that trend.

17. Has Become More Important than Ever Because of the COVID-19 Crisis

Speaking of which, Deliverr remains more important than ever because of the COVID-19 crisis. The bottlenecks in the global supply chain are expected to clear up at some point in the future. However, they haven’t cleared up yet, meaning that there is an even greater need for fulfillment companies that can navigate a more complicated business environment. For that matter, even once those bottlenecks clear up, the world has changed a great deal. By outsourcing, e-commerce operations can avoid having to deal with those issues on their own.

18. Not the Only Fulfillment Company to Benefit

Of course, Deliverr isn’t the only fulfillment company to benefit from this trend. To name an example, it has been receiving a lot of funds from interested investors. However, so has similar companies such as Hive and Sendbox. Fulfillment is a big industry that can accommodate a lot of players. Even so, it will be interesting to see how these companies will interact with one another in the time to come because they are bound to bump shoulders sooner or later if they haven’t done so already.

19. Interested in Data

Deliverr has expressed a clear interest in data. This has very practical uses for the company. To name an example, data provides Deliverr with the ability to predict what people are going to buy in particular markets as well as how much people are going to buy in those same markets. This is useful because having the necessary goods in the right warehouses makes it much easier for the company to get them to the intended recipients as soon as possible.

20. Interested in Adding New Capabilities

Still, not all of the money that Deliverr has managed to raise will go towards improving existing capabilities. This is because the company has also expressed a clear interest in adding new capabilities, which would presumably make it better and better-suited for more and more potential clients. One example of something that the company has expressed an interest in would be returns. Another example would be temperature control, which would presumably make the company more capable of handling temperature-sensitive products. Lot tracking has also been mentioned.