How Shipping Technology Can Revolutionise Your Ecommerce Business | Interparcel

Small business start-ups and huge ecommerce corporations have one thing in common - their success relies on a proactive approach to shipping.

In ecommerce, the importance of a good shipping strategy cannot be overstated. If your shipping strategy is strong, the rest of your business will follow suit. If your shipping strategy is lacklustre, your profits will be too.

A good shipping strategy means more than just getting items delivered to your customers on time. It means transforming your brand to optimise the shipping process at every step, from fulfilment and label creation to final delivery and tracking. It involves a proactive approach to your processes that actively reduces the risk of errors and saves your business time and money.

To make your shipping experience the best it can be, the team at Interparel have put together a series of articles full of actionable tips and tools about how shipping technology can transform your brand. If you haven’t looked into optimising your shipping before, the outcome is nothing short of revolutionary.

Optimise Your Logistics with the Latest in Shipping Technology

A strong shipping strategy backed by the latest logistics technology can do wonders for your business, whether you’re just starting to ship across Australia or have an established international audience.

Technology plays a vital role in improving your shipping processes by automating tasks, reducing errors, and saving time. By applying software and hardware tools to your shipping processes, your business will find itself able to streamline time consuming and tedious tasks, saving you valuable time. This allows you to direct more resources to other areas of the business that benefit from a human touch, such as customer service and marketing.

For your customers, a business backed by quality logistics technology ensures that they get consistent, high-quality service. They are empowered by choice in shipping options, receive their deliveries faster and stay updated throughout the shipping process. A great buying and delivery experience greatly improves customer satisfaction leading to a boost in positive reviews and word of mouth, and ultimately increased business growth.

However, enhancing your business isn’t as simple as just signing up for new software or adopting a new application. There are a multitude of different shipping tools out there, and you must choose the right ones for your brand.

Choosing a Shipping Software and Adopting a Multicarrier Shipping Solution.

Shipping software is a staple of the modern ecommerce landscape, and there is a range of excellent software tools and platforms available to optimise your shipping strategy. Your competitors will be using a shipping platform, and if you aren’t, your business is essentially operating with one hand tied behind its back.

If you are a newcomer to shipping software and optimisation, you are likely used to working with a single shipping carrier company. But with the right logistics software at hand, you can easily adopt a multicarrier approach which increases your shipping options and ensures you get the most affordable rate on every package you send.

What is a Multicarrier Shipping Solution?

Different shipping carriers offer different rates, and often, one is cheaper and preferable to another. However, attempting to research rates and juggle multiple carriers for each and every delivery would take up a huge amount of work capacity.

This is where multicarrier shipping solutions come in - with the right software tools, selecting between multiple carriers becomes quick and easy, allowing you to take advantage of the vast benefits of multicarrier shipping without having to invest a lot of time and effort.

With multicarrier shipping, every time you go to fulfil your orders, you are given a variety of options from different carriers and shipping methods. Select the most appropriate option based on factors like price, delivery location, parcel size, weight, and delivery time.

The most obvious advantage of having access to this flexibility is that it can save you a huge amount on shipping costs, which you can pass on to your customers.

Another benefit is that it ensures you can meet your customers’ delivery needs more effectively. For instance, if one carrier offers an affordable and efficient service for local deliveries but another offers unbeatable international rates, you can alternate between them for different orders to make the best decision every time.

The idea of comparing multiple carriers may seem like a huge undertaking, but software platforms like Interparcel simplify the process by providing clear, easy-to-understand information on each carrier’s services, costs, and delivery times, making it easy for you to make the best choice.

A multicarrier software platform allows you to select the best option for each shipment every time, making a multicarrier shipping approach simple and stress-free.

Shipping Yourself Vs. Multicarrier Solution: Which is Better?

When you don’t take advantage of shipping software, handling processes manually takes a huge amount of time and effort, especially if you're handling a large volume of orders at once. If you don’t use shipping software, you will need to manually upload every single order from your ecommerce store and write out the details of each of these orders onto your courier platform. This takes a huge amount of time and runs the risk of user error.

Multicarrier software, like the Interparcel platform, does more than just provide you with access to a range of different carriers - it provides tools like order upload automation at every step of the shipping process to save you time, effort and money.

By integrating high-quality shipping software with your ecommerce platform or importing orders via CSV, you can use the platform’s tools to process your orders quickly and efficiently.

Why Shipping Software is Vital for Ecommerce Success

Good shipping software isn’t just nice to have - it is a must have for any business that is looking to succeed in the competitive arena of ecommerce.

When your business is backed by quality shipping technology, you will have access to a range of great tools. As we’ve explained, you’ll be able to automate order imports, generate shipping labels and compare rates of different shipping carriers - all with minimal manual effort. This leads to increased efficiency and fewer errors, all of which contribute to a stronger customer experience.

However, we have neglected to mention one of the most important benefits - one which makes shipping software vital for success.

At Interparcel, our multicarrier system goes beyond just providing a great way to compare and purchase shipping from different carriers. We’ve gone to the effort to negotiate with top carriers to get you access to exclusive discounted rates from top carriers such as Couriers Please, Aramex, and Startrack, as well as international carriers like UPS and FedEx.

These negotiated discount rates are usually reserved for large corporations, which makes it no wonder that ecommerce can be tough for small businesses - you’re operating at a disadvantage. Fortunately, with Interparcel, even small businesses can take advantage of these rates and gain significant savings.

What Should You Look for in a Shipping Platform?

No two businesses are run the same way, and just as every online store has its own niches and specialisations, so do shipping platforms. It is important to do your research and look around before selecting your shipping platform in order to find one that aligns well with the way you run your business.

When evaluating potential platforms, consider the following factors.

Ease of Integration - It’s best to find a platform that integrates seamlessly with your existing ecommerce system. Whether you’re using Shopify, WooCommerce, or another platform, the ability to sync orders from your store to the shipping platform automatically will save you a lot of time and reduce the risk of errors.

Carrier Options - As explained above, a multicarrier system gives you a great advantage when shipping. It is important to understand that a multicarrier system is only as good as the carriers it can offer. A high number of carriers might sound great, but it's worth little if none of them can ship to your customer’s locations at an affordable rate. Look for platforms that offer a variety of different carriers that provide a selection of options and advantages, so you can always find a suitable and cost-effective option.

Future Potential - As your business grows larger, you will likely want to expand into the international market - or perhaps you already have. When selecting your shipping platform, don’t just think of the now - keep the future of your business in mind. It’s a good idea to ensure your platform of choice supports international shipping and provides competitive rates for global deliveries.

Customer Support - In ecommerce, customer support is of vital importance. Bad word of mouth spreads quickly, and when customer orders are delayed or incorrect, you can find yourself losing customers fast. Shipping issues are bound to arise at some point, and oftentimes, you can only support your customer as much as your shipping platform can support you. It’s important to choose a platform with human support teams who are on hand to help you resolve any issues as quickly as possible, keeping both you and your customers in the loop.

By weighing up the pros and cons of different shipping platforms, you will be able to find the one that best suits your business. Whether it’s a smooth integration with your favourite carrier or ecommerce system, great international shipping rates, or optimal customer support, each shipping platform will have selling points that appeal to different businesses.

How to Compare Different Shipping Software

When you’re researching and comparing different shipping platforms, here are a few more things to keep in mind:

Ease of Use - Look for easy to use shipping platforms that have a clear and easy to read layout. It should not be difficult to automate your most time-consuming manual processes, such as order imports. If you’re finding yourself wasting time trying to figure out and set up a complicated automation process, it defeats the purpose.

Scalability - It would be a shame to choose a platform, only to outgrow it and have to adapt to another. Choose software that can grow with your business. Consider possible long-term needs, such as international shipping or more complex logistics that can be sped up and error-proofed with shipping automation tools.

Customisation - As your business grows, your shipping needs will grow, too. Ensure that your shipping software can be customised to suit your specific requirements and needs.

Item Suitability - Ensure that shipping software caters to any specific needs. For instance, if you ship dangerous or refrigerated goods, be sure to check the prohibited and restricted items lists to make sure your items can be shipped by the platform.

A well-suited shipping platform should be easy to use, provide access to a range of quality carriers, and provide the tools to help your business streamline processes, reduce your workload, and increase your bottom line.

Optimise Your Operations With Quality Logistics Tools

Specialised software and hardware tools, such as automation, pick-and-pack lists, and label printers, are a powerful way for ecommerce stores to streamline your logistics and reduce errors.

With a suite full of efficiency-boosting logistics tools, shipping becomes increasingly easier, faster, and cost-effective.

Process Large Volumes of Orders Quickly and Easily

As your business grows, so will the amount of work you’ll have to put in. You’ll face the challenge of having to process increasingly large volumes of orders. Trying to process these at a reasonable pace can quickly become overwhelming, leading to delays and errors for your customers which, even with great customer support, can amount to negative reviews or word-of-mouth.

Fortunately, shipping software can automate many of the tasks required for order processing, allowing you to fulfil even the largest of orders quickly and without error.

For instance, you can integrate ecommerce stores like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Etsy to import any orders over to your shipping software. This eliminates the need to manually copy the order data across and ensures that all orders are processed with accuracy.

With the Interparcel platform, you can do everything in one place. Once your order is imported, choose your carrier and deliver space, pay for all shipping costs in a single translation, and print your shipping labels directly from the platform.

Embrace Automation to Streamline Your Shipping Process

Shipping processes are made up of a number of different steps, such as selecting your carrier of choice, calculating the relevant shipping rates, printing your labels, and so on. Doing these tasks manually for every order adds up to a huge amount of time. Fortunately, automation tools can help you simplify these tasks, allowing you to complete orders quickly and easily.

Interparcel’s Shipping Manager tool is a perfect example of how automation can cut down on shipping process tasks. Our software can combine your orders from a variety of different ecommerce platforms into a single easy-to-use dashboard.

Our Shipping Manager will also provide you with real-time shipping rates, ensuring you can accurately choose the most cost-effective carrier for each delivery.

Automated, real-time shipping updates contribute to a better customer experience by keeping your customers properly informed about the status of their deliveries, sending them SMS and email updates when their parcel is picked up by the carrier, arrives at the depot, and is on the way to their destination, providing customers with the information they need to ensure they are ready to accept the parcel when it arrives.

Print 6x4 Labels to Save Time on Fulfilling Orders

The process of manually downloading and printing off individual shipping labels for each package quickly becomes tedious and time-consuming, especially if you’re handling a large volume of orders. It’s worse still if your items encounter delivery issues because carriers struggle to scan your labels.

One simple way to optimise the label printing process is by switching to 6x4 printing labels, which are the industry standard. These labels are the ideal size for parcels, clearly displaying all necessary information for both carriers and customers.

Interparcel’s Print Manager tool allows you to connect directly to a 6x4 label printer, enabling you to print labels and invoices instantly without the need to waste time manually downloading PDF files. When labels are printed, they are already the ideal size for parcels, meaning you don’t need to mess around cutting labels out of a larger piece of paper.

The Print Manager tool eliminates the need for tedious label preparation, saving you time and paper while creating high-quality, industry standard labels that look professional and reduce the risk of errors.

How to Choose a Shipping Label Printer

Conventional inkjet printers shouldn’t be your first choice when it comes to printing shipping labels. They are costly, inefficient, and can be prone to errors.

When it comes to specialised shipping label printers, the industry standard model is a 6x4 thermal printer. Unlike inkjet printers, thermal printer technology is fast, reliable, and works without ink. They can print on a range of different materials, such as paper, plastic, and vinyl, giving you flexibility in your packaging choices.

A proper thermal label printer is a great investment for any ecommerce business looking to grow, as it provides you with the means to print cheap labels quickly and efficiently, helping you keep up with a high volume of orders.

Package Parcels Faster With an Effective Picking & Packing List

If you regularly have to process large orders, a picking and packing list is essential for staying on top of things.

This tool allows you to easily generate lists that includes all relevant items and customer information, allows you to easily find and check off items as they are collected and orders as they are packaged, reducing the chance of errors and ensuring that all of your orders reach your customers correctly.

Pick and pack lists also save you a lot of time dealing with stock management, as they provide a clear record of your inventory levels, making stocktake quick, easy and reliable.

Interparcel’s picking and packing list feature ensures that every one of your orders are processed quickly and with accuracy, saving you time and reducing the risk of mistakes.

Take Your Shipping to the Next Level

Shipping technology isn’t just a luxury for large corporations that can afford it - it is a necessity for all types of ecommerce businesses that want to stay competitive in the increasingly packed online space.

By making use of the right software and hardware tools, you can streamline your shipping processes, reduce your operational time and expenses, and ensure your customers get a great shipping experience.

Platforms like Interparcel provide a comprehensive solution that optimises and enhances your shipping operations.

From managing a multicarrier system to automating tedious tasks, shipping technology helps you save time and enhance your business efficiency. With the right shipping software, you can scale your business, improve customer satisfaction, and make your ecommerce business as good as it can be.