Welcome to Parcelconsulting
Welcome to Parcelconsulting
Ecommerce shipping software and shipping management systems have come a long way over the last decade. There are hundreds of software systems designed to allow your company to print all their shipping labels. From basic free systems that typically just support USPS to robust software systems developed for the most sophisticated fulfillment warehouse networks in the country, you can find multiple software systems that give your business the tools to automate most of the common processes in your shipping department.
The obvious question becomes: What is the best shipping system for business? Our founders and team of shipping experts have been working on, competing against and have partnered with nearly every major shipping software company for more than a decade. Over the years, we’ve closely tracked all the features and functions of various shipping software companies and what types of businesses and shipping needs are best for their technology. The list is long and that’s why we put this detailed guide together on how to pick the best shipping software for your company.
The most basic definition of shipping software is a software system used to print shipping labels. The term has become so much broader than that over the past few decades. It’s a software category that plays a key role for any business that ships products and packages daily. It’s also a powerful data hub that often collects all your businesses various order information from all your sales channels.
You’ll hear many different terms or phrases used to describe similar systems, like transportation management system (TMS), warehouse management system (WMS), manifesting system, and many more. Generally, these all involve features and functions developed to make the process of creating the correct packing list, invoice, and shipping label for each package your company ships as streamlined as possible.
Before you and your team dive into a new ecommerce shipping software or shipping management system, it will streamline the process if you take the time to outline your entire shipping and logistics operation. We talk to shippers routinely that simply signed up for the first shipping system they found online or the software with the first commercial they saw years ago. It got their shipping labels printed so they never explored whether another system might serve them better.
Some of the details might seem a bit trivial as you take note of your current process. However, it’s important to make sure you have the full picture of your current pick-pack-and-ship process, real needs, software and people involved, and detail any pain points. It’s like spending a little extra time sharpening the axe so the tree goes down in the fewest strikes. Let’s make sure that the time spent changing to a new shipping management system is something your company will only have to go through once.
Here’s a simple list of some key questions to get started with your process outline:
Obviously, shipping software only comes into play once an order has been placed. Mapping out your order flow, inventory management needs, customer service requirements and process, and the accounting systems used will play a key role in picking the best shipping software. Many shipping systems have built in an array of integration options tailored to all types of companies and fulfillment needs.
Here’s a few of the systems to review their role in your internal process (if they have one) before you work on finding the best shipping software:
Nearly all shipping management systems and shipping software can create shipping activity reports and export CSV files with your data if you need to get it into another system and a direct integration is not available. This simply means you don’t have to let one missing integration keep you from using a shipping software that meets all your other needs.
At Parcel Consulting, we speak with experienced shippers and established businesses that have not reviewed all their shipping carrier options in some time. It’s common to feel like things are working with your current carrier and you negotiated some extra discount so there’s no reason to try to fix what’s not broken. The biggest problem with this belief is that you’ve limited the options for your business and failed to play the shipping game to the ultimate benefit of your company.
Most people that work in shipping understand that carriers have been authorized to be more aggressive on rates and discounts when you have lots of shipping volume. What many don’t understand is that nearly all carriers have been authorized and have programs that have been designed to be more aggressive to win business from competitors. Whatever the size of your business, you will see a benefit from continuing to explore your shipping carrier options and keep an open mind to switching carriers when a better deal comes along.
If you keep an open mind to explore other carriers and get some regular bids for your business, the worst case is you end up staying with your current carrier and simply paying less. We frequently remind clients that’s a great option too. Use the resources and options out there to keep your current carrier honest and competitive.
We’ve talked to many business owners that admitted they probably took it easy on their carrier sales rep because they liked him or her and hadn’t forced the rates negotiation enough. It’s great to like your sales rep and can help your business, but you can help them do their job and get you a better deal by forcing them to complete. And there’s no reason it can’t stay friendly while you tell your sales rep you really hope they can compete because you like them.
Everyone recognizes Amazon as a leader in all things shipping and logistics, but many successful companies fail to implement one of the most basic lessons they have passed on to any company that ships products. You should be aggressively pursuing new shipping carrier options, services, and discounts as often as possible.
The advances in shipping software technology over the past decade have made it easier than ever for small to mid-sized companies to leverage carrier access and rate shopping tools to make sure your shipments are always at the lowest cost possible. Like Amazon, this opens so many options for your company to offer free shipping and expedited shipping options to your best customers.
Most of the popular shipping software systems have advanced options to create automation and business rules. These break down into any if-then scenarios you can dream up. If a certain product SKU is imported into the system, you can set the software to default to a specific carrier, shipping method, box size, weight, and more. You can create basic weight-based rules, like every shipment under one pound defaults to USPS First Class, which is a great rule for any business to adopt that doesn’t have an urgency to delivery time or a great rate with the best shipping consolidator for your business.
One of the best things you can do before you start signing up for demos and free trials of various shipping software systems is to build a list of your absolutely required business rules and all the automation rules it would be nice to have. Work with anyone in your shipping department that could help build a list of both. This is one of the essential steps we go through with shippers that want to find the best shipping software for their business.
Many different shipping software companies have a marketing message that simply tries to appeal to the most shippers possible. Our vast experience with many different shipping software systems have made it clear that not all are alike, and most are tailored towards the industry they serviced most frequently in their early days. This only makes sense they would continue to add features and functionality being requested by their current customers.
We’ve seen that some shipping software systems are designed to work perfectly for ecommerce businesses that have grown beyond the capabilities of today’s most popular options. Maybe they need some basic inventory management or maybe they are tired of the limitations of scrolling through a bunch of orders while the screen loads and lags in most online shipping software systems. We’ve worked with shipping management software systems that are perfect for large fulfillment warehouses that need more advanced functionality to automate the complicated process of showing their clients accurate shipping costs and inventory levels at all times.
We’ve worked with many companies that simply needed to find the best shipping API aggregator for their needs. They’ve built many of the tools they need in house, but they are tired of all the updates required to stay current and functional with the various carrier APIs. There are many options on this front and there are significant differences among those options as well.
Gathering all the details to outline your current shipping process has created a profile and hierarchy of your shipping needs. Even being able to outline all the systems that you would like integrated into a unified solution, your overall carrier needs and options, and the pain points you want to address in your pick, pack, and ship process will have you dialed you for the testing of new shipping management software systems and give you the focused topics for any demos or calls with the potential providers.
At Parcel Consulting, this outline represents the details we need to consider before we recommend the best shipping software solutions for your company. Our typical process includes a recommendation of three or four different software systems. However, we typically know exactly which system will be best suited for a company’s needs once we’ve established this profile and recommend they start with that software and review the other systems if they are not able to address all their needs or they’re not completely satisfied with that solution for one reason or another.
One of our main goals is to streamline the process of selecting a shipping management software system that is the best solution for their company by homing in on the most important details of the process. That’s the real secret to finding the best shipping software for your company. The time spent outline and review all the details of your current shipping operations and reviewing pain points that can be addressed is substantially better than just signing up for a bunch of free trials and hoping you find the best solution.
As you’ve defined your shipping profile, you should have the clear pick and pack process detailed with feedback from your team about how you could improve. The shipping software you choose can significantly change the efficiency and accuracy of your pick and pack process. Amazingly, there are still many companies that hand enter orders into their shipping software from orders placed online. Streamlining this process with a direct integration will reduce the time to pick, pack and ship each order.
There are also more sophisticated ways that shipping software can impact your pick and pack process. There are many shipping systems that offer various levels of inventory management features in one system and there are integrations for more robust order management and ERP systems. These systems can allow you to implement barcode scanning down to the product level so that you guarantee all the correct items are packed in every box.
If you don’t have a large inventory of SKUs or complicated kits and bundles, then you should probably explore ways to batch process in shipping software. It is simple to set up batches for similar products or box size or item warehouse locations so that you can pick and pack groups of orders at the same time. These same systems have options to create group packing lists or utilize all-in-one forms for combined packing slips and shipping labels.
There are three main categories of shipping software. Here are the things you can expect from each of these categories in terms of features, functions, and pricing and the types of business that will be best served by each:
* Some technologies will fit more than one of these categories and some companies may require a more advanced solution.
Most people understand how quickly technology advances, but this is often overlooked when it comes to eCommerce technology. There may be a reason to keep your current software, especially if it is reliable and fully integrated with your internal platforms. However, just because it works, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider other options.
A lot of changes have taken place in recent years, and newer technologies often have faster processing, more robust integrations, and were built for high-volume eCommerce environments. A software that was built 10 years ago, was designed for the eCommerce market as it was 10 years ago. And although your software has been regularly updated with patches, features, integrations, etc., the underlying architecture is still limited. This is why we recommend reviewing your software every 4-6 years.
If you had to use an iPhone 6, the same model that was popular 5 years ago, how long would you keep it? Would you still use it knowing that your current phone is much faster, can handle more processes and doesn’t drop as many calls? This is like your old shipping software. It still works and you might be comfortable with it, but a current solution will be faster, more reliable, and will save you money.
Basic eCommerce Software – Growing businesses
Advanced Logistics Solutions – Mature Logistics Operations
Enterprise Software – Tier 1 Solutions
There are many options for flexible fulfillment in almost every major market around the country whatever the size of your business. The important thing is to figure out where you would benefit the most from the option. Your shipping and order data tells the story.
If your business ships from one location in Arizona and have lots of customers on the east coast, then your company would benefit from exploring the use of a fulfillment warehouse in Atlanta or Charlotte or New Jersey. Maybe your data will point to three or four major markets with daily or weekly order volume that would justify sending some product to a fulfillment location in all areas and expanding your local delivery options on your website in those areas.
The wonderful thing about the advances in shipping software is that these choices can be set-up as rules depending on things like ship to zip code or state and routed to their system for fulfillment. This can take time and money to set up, but it can improve your delivery times, lower your overall shipping costs, and probably win you more customers with options for affordable same and next day delivery on your website.
Amazon and the other major retailers with same day, next day shipping options have conditioned consumers to expect fast delivery or they will look elsewhere for their favorite products. This means the simple answer is you should be looking to offer local delivery and expedited options everywhere you can. The problem for most companies is they only ship from one location. Usually, it’s an office or warehouse or single fulfillment house. This means that the only next day option is extremely expensive with UPS or FedEx. Furthermore, if you want to guarantee it gets to the customer tomorrow, you’re looking at an even higher cost.
With options like flexible fulfillment options to be used when it is the closest or best option for the shipment, companies can expand their same day and next day shipping footprint substantially. Companies like Cahoot.ai allow you to get products as close as possible to your customers and give you the flexibility to utilize their warehouse space and delivery network to offer more customers affordable next day shipping. This also opens an assortment of 1-3 workshare shipping products for quick delivery at a sizable discount.
For years, most ecommerce retailers were at the mercy of the three major US carrier options once they dropped that package off. Online merchants have a huge selection of options to improve the post-purchase experience and take back some control of the process. There are many companies that offer various shipping insurance programs and competition has made them affordable and available in almost all shipping software systems. If you have valuable items or seem to have recurring issues with packages disappearing, you should certainly explore some insurance options.
One of the most creative ways to provide package protection and enhance visibility to your customers is to add the Route package protection program to your checkout process. Route allows customers to add package protection at checkout for as low as $0.98. The Route app allows the customer to keep universal order and tracking history with all carriers and they get a visual tracking map to follow the shipment along. If there are issues with package condition or it is lost or stolen, the customer files a claim with Route. Once approved, Route buys the same products from the merchant’s online store and gets it shipped to the customer. It’s a clean and simple experience for the end consumer and your business gains some control of the post-purchase process.
There are no companies that like returns, but there are some companies that realize that convenient returns lead to happy, repeat customers. The stats have been clear for more than a decade. If your returns process is a hassle, most consumers will never order from your website again. Even if they weren’t happy with the product, most customers will give another chance to those companies that allow for convenient returns. Understanding this simple and important concept is all you need to know about returns in general.
From there, you can work to lower the number of returns in many creative ways. The first and most important way is to eliminate pick and pack mistakes with a better shipping software and process. Shipping the wrong item is still one of the more common reasons returns are a necessary evil for merchants if they want to attract and retain customers.
Most of the popular ecommerce shipping systems have multiple options for creating return shipping labels and managing the returns process. There are also many systems that will let you add automated returns to your website. This way a customer can process and print a returns label from your website based on your returns rules.
While most people would recognize a 4×6 shipping label these days, few people understand there are many different options for shipping labels. The best shipping label option and format depends on your process. Some companies prefer to print pick tickets or packing lists first or from a separate system and then scan the barcode to print a shipping label for that package.
Other companies find increased efficiency and accuracy by using one of the many all-in-one formats available today to print your shipping label and packing slip/invoice together. The all-in-one forms can be huge for subscription box services or other companies that ship a small selection of products in high volume.
There are a lot of options to consider if you are looking for new shipping software for your existing business and that is why it’s tempting to just sign up for the first system you see on tv. Now, you have a method to figure out the most important parts of your shipping process and make sure that you find a system that addresses all the priorities.
Not only will this process help you address all the right questions, features, and functions with any shipping software company you ever talk to, it will help you and your company figure out where you are doing well on shipping and where you can improve. The vast selection of shipping software comes into play on the improvement part and the details you’ve laid out will make sure those areas you are already strong stay strong because you address them head on.
Parcel Consulting provides completely-free shipping software consultation to those companies and individuals looking for a new shipping software system, but not looking to go through this long and detailed process to arrive at the best one for their company. Contact us today at 833-727-2351 to start the process or book a time online.
