Are you a merchant looking to turn your shipping into a strategic asset? In this article, we’ll reveal the best practices you can implement to achieve savings of up to 50% on your e-commerce shipments.
E-commerce shipping is the final link in the chain between merchant and consumer. It is only at this crucial stage that the merchant has really fulfilled his contract. Transport costs, variety of options (express, point of collection, home delivery, click and collect), delivery times, easy returns management… these are all points on which consumers are sensitive and demanding. E-commerce shipping is an essential part of a successful online shopping experience, and must therefore be carefully analyzed.
With consumers increasingly demanding fast delivery, when and where they want it, merchants need to be ever more efficient to stay competitive.
Today, transport contributes to the creation of value and to the economic performance of companies, and merchants are well aware of this. For them, controlling shipments has become strategic.
Fortunately, e-tailers can rely on a number of tools, including e-commerce TMSs, to help them optimize and save time and money on their shipments. Some of these tools can automate activities that can prove tedious. Among these is the printing of parcel labels, a tedious task, especially when working with several carriers and selling products with different characteristics.
Create e-commerce shipping rules to automate shipments
One of the great advantages of the e-commerce TMS is that it enables you to associate carriers with shipments, thanks to highly refined e-commerce shipping rules. These rules include :
- The weight and/or dimensions of the package,
- The control source
- The delivery method chosen by the buyer
- Delivery address
- Order price
- And much more…
Automating these rules will :
- Establish e-commerce shipping rules as soon as orders are received, and not just at the time of packing, enabling you to plan picking sessions according to the carrier. A strategic and extremely useful tool for prioritizing your preparation sessions and getting ready for the carrier cut-off,
- You make sure you always match the right carrier with the right parcels to offer the best quality of service to the consumer,
- Relieve warehouse teams of this type of strategic decision,
- Use intelligent automation for decision-making,
- Control and reduce transport costs,
- And more generally, to save time
Simplified label printing for e-commerce shipping
For a long time, merchants had only one option for printing their parcel labels: use the printer supplied by the carriers. The problem is that these printers are often restricted to printing labels in the format of the carrier who supplied the printer.
Important : please note that each carrier uses a specific model for its parcel labels, in particular to work with their own sorting and delivery processes.
The TMS overcomes this problem by harmonizing the standard of parcel labels , so that they comply with carrier standards and can be printed on a single printer.
It also enables you to automatically print your other transport documents (slips, invoices, customs documents, CN23s, return labels) from a single back office! No more juggling between different interfaces to retrieve all these documents.
E-commerce shipping labels are produced as follows:
- Orders are centralized and information is retrieved in real time,
- Orders are prepared and printed using the delivery slip,
- Label printing is assigned to the carriers and filled in automatically,
- Printing the parcel label will enable two actions to be combined: closing the order on the sales source and sending notifications to the consumer.
The advantages of parcel label printing with Shippingbo can be found in :
- Time efficiency : no more juggling back offices
- Increased customer satisfaction: no more delivery errors due to missing information
- Simplification of the information system: a single printer to print labels on multiple carriers.
To find out more on the subject, consult our 100% free e-book by clicking on the image below:
Fewer after-sales requests due to e-commerce shipping problems
Communicating transparently and fluidly with consumers by sending them regular follow-up notifications (by e-mail and/or sms) considerably reduces calls to the after-sales service. These notifications are sent completely automatically, whenever the order status changes.
Should the consumer still have questions, your after-sales teams can provide precise answers about the whereabouts of their parcel. In fact, once the parcel has been handed over to the carrier, the TMS continues to make calls on the carrier’s interface to track its progress until it is delivered. This is a good way of ensuring that your parcel has arrived safely, but above all that the carrier has honored the delivery deadlines announced. Thanks to this system, the after-sales service has all the tools it needs to respond to customer requests and complaints as efficiently as possible.
Transport rates that are both exclusive and competitive
Shippingbo’s partners include freight forwarders. They are qualified to resell transport at ultra-competitive prices. A great way to reduce your transport costs even further!
Shippingbo, the ideal tool for e-commerce shipping
By activating the 5 levers, you can not only save time, but also make financial savings on your shipments, while improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Not only that, but you’ll be able to offer your teams greater working comfort, such as the elimination of time-consuming tasks, a simplified work experience, quick and easy access to a solution, and a big reduction in the pressure felt by your teams.
Finally, your shipments are more reliable, as there is no human intervention, and therefore no more errors. Last but not least, the algorithm optimizes your transport purchases by offering you the possibility of calculating your best transport choice in relation to different orders.
Watch the replay of our webinar to find out how to save up to 50% on e-commerce shipping.
