Are you a logistics provider looking for ways to increase your parcel volume? Would you like to improve your value proposition to attract more merchants? We’ve got the solution!
With the French spending 147 billion euros online in 2022 (+13.8% vs. 2021), e-commerce is a huge market for logistics providers.
In this market, and as logistics professionals, logisticians are in a way the merchants’ ambassadors, because they are the link with their customers and the guarantors of customer satisfaction.
Merchants expect them to deliver ever greater innovation and performance, to make the logistical difference in an increasingly competitive market.
But how do you bring this level of satisfaction to your merchant customers? How can you improve your value proposition to attract new merchants? How can you significantly increase your parcel volume?
Simplify and secure data exchanges with your merchant customers
First of all, OMS, Order Management System, is a functional brick between sales channels and logistics warehouses. It is an intelligent, customer-centric technology whose main functions are:
- Connection to your merchant customers’ sales sources (Shippingbo has over 120 Plug and Play connections)
- Automatic retrieval of orders in real time
- Real-time transmission of orders to your warehouse
- Real-time synchronization of stock levels across sales channels
- Automatic feedback of order status to sales sources
- Automatic follow-up email and SMS notifications to consumers
To complete these flows, Shippingbo offers two other functional bricks: its WMS and TMS, which can be added to your architecture if you wish. If you already have your own tools, Shippingbo OMS can also connect to them.
Here are the benefits of using OMS:
For your customers (merchants) :
- A 360° and continuous vision of the logistics activity operated on their behalf
- Shorter delivery times
- A response to (increasingly high) consumer expectations
For logisticians :
- Promote your trade/know-how by indicating status to consumers
- Real-time logistics management: maximize same-day dispatch rates
- No overselling (real-time inventory management)
- No loss of time with file recovery (because everything is centralized on a single tool: OMS)
- Fair and secure data
Data security may seem self-evident, but this is not the case in some IS architectures. To develop this point, we’ll illustrate it with a metaphor frequently used by our CEO, Marc Héricher.
Shippingbo is a multi-socket.
In comparison, we find the adapter, which some merchants decide to use to connect marketplaces to their CMS, for example.
It’s a risk on several levels:
- The first is the financial risk involved in taking responsibility for the value and physical management of your customers’ goods.
- Of course, it’s unthinkable to make product errors: on receipt, when putting products into stock or when preparing orders.
- However, this is directly linked to getting the right information from the sales channels.
- The accumulation of cascading IS does not allow for the recovery of clean information, without the risk of loss in translation between the different systems. As we all know, the straight line is often the fastest and most reliable.
That’s why Shippingbo is connected directly to all the players, via API and plug and play.
- RGPD data security is also a topic:
- How many merchants have had their Amazon accounts closed because Amazon detected a risk in data transmission, or because the final delivery address was incorrect? Using Shippingbo means you don’t have to assume this responsibility with merchants for whom an account closure would be critical.
Offer your customers the opportunity to develop multiple sales channels with ease
Diversifying sales channels has become a necessity for merchants who want to reach as many consumers as possible and thus increase their sales volume.
Indeed, consumers have become accustomed to comparing prices and delivery conditions on several platforms before making their purchasing choice. If a product is only available on one sales channel, the merchant risks losing sales to the ever-growing competition. That’s why omnichannel has become the norm in 2023.
OMS Shippingbo will enable your customers to develop on these sales channels thanks to its 120 plug and play integrations.
Additional SKU management, a feature available in OMS Shippingbo, also enables merchants to showcase their products ad infinitum with different marketing appointments to meet precise consumer needs and be more visible on the entire e-commerce market, without impacting logistics and location management by the logistician.
Benefits for your customers:
- More scalability
- Reach millions of potential new customers
- Easy sales development
The benefits for you:
- Improve your value proposition
- Handling more orders
- Increase your sales
Help your customers seize new development opportunities
The share of transport costs in logistics is considerable, reaching up to 70%. This means that a cost reduction in the logistics offer (receiving, storage, pick and pack) will not be enough to satisfy merchant customers’ logistics needs.
To minimize transport costs, we recommend that logistics specialists adopt practices such as optimized pick-up through freight forwarders.
Logisticians can also use transport mapping to keep their promises to consumers while reducing transport costs.
This feature, offered by Shippingbo, automates the selection of the best transport option, based on several factors such as parcel weight and size rules, delivery address down to zip code, order price and order source to determine the best transport option.
To increase the satisfaction of both merchants and consumers, it is also essential to offer a diverse range of delivery methods. Consumers must be able to choose between standard delivery, express delivery, click and collect, or point relais delivery. Merchants who don’t offer these options risk losing up to 30% of their customers, and 60% of consumers abandon their orders due to insufficient delivery options.
In addition, to ensure fast and efficient parcel and fulfillment, it is important to process orders promptly upon receipt and to provide quality order information.
Finally, the choice of a forwarding agent can be very interesting, depending on your order volume and the location of your warehouse. As a reminder: a freight forwarder is a transport wholesaler who buys and resells transport in volume: he advises, negotiates prices, handles multi-carrier pick-up and injection.
This actor can help you :
- Financial gains – benefit from high purchasing volumes and therefore economies of scale on pick-up.
- Orchestration of offers to obtain the most relevant result in terms of costs and delivery promises
- Integration of the environmental aspect, as a freight forwarder enables us to make global pick-ups and reduce the number of trucks on the road.
To sum up, here are the 3 main tips to adopt:
- Competitive transport contracts
- Transport mapping to reduce costs and keep delivery promises
- Collaborate with forwarding agents
Conclusion
In conclusion, using logistics solutions such as Shippingbo can help you add value to your business and your value proposition by offering quality services and optimal satisfaction to your customers and end consumers. By working with Shippingbo, you can expand your customer base and order volume, while gaining access to hundreds of merchants who could entrust you with their stock. Thanks to these advantages, you can optimize your business and increase your sales with complete confidence.
Don’t miss our webinar and find out how to fully exploit the potential of your logistics.
