Welcome to Parcelconsulting
Welcome to Parcelconsulting
About 15 years ago, your ecommerce store didn’t have a ton of reliable options for shipping software. People needed a solution that could connect directly to your shopping cart, import all your orders, give you access to all the major national carriers and many beyond that, allowing you to create rules to automatically set all your preferred defaults and even rate shop carriers against each other.
We were a part of building one of the first multicarrier shipping software options that was delivered on a SaaS (Software as a Service) model. Most of the systems at that time required large contracts for custom development to accomplish what you can in free shipping software today. Like many software industries, it has given small to midsized companies a chance to compete effectively with much larger companies.
Parcel Consulting helps companies that ship products on a regular basis find all the best ways to reduce their shipping costs, maximize their efficiency with software and technology and streamline their shipping process and strategy. Our team of shipping experts has worked with thousands of businesses on their ecommerce shipping and put together this guide to help any company of any size make sure their shipping department is running as smoothly and cost-effectively as possible.
From choosing the best shipping software to finding the lowest shipping rates, and everything in between—here is how you tackle ecommerce shipping like an industry leader.
Taking the time to plan now instead of scrambling to keep up later will save you time, money and plenty of stress in the long run. Your ecommerce shipping strategy should be streamlined for maximum efficiency—so you don’t have to make major changes to your operations in the future once your business has grown.
Start with auditing your current shipping process. Map it out with all relevant details, so you know exactly what you’re working with and define the essentials. Determine which systems, software and processes are necessities and use those as the foundation of your strategy, if you’re sure they will still be effective when business has doubled, tripled and beyond. Then, list your pain points. Which of your shipping activities is holding you back? How can you remedy them?
Once you’ve listed out the pros and cons of your current shipping process, you can then map outgrowth projections. Look beyond your current process to estimate an order volume that would cause problems. What are your plans if your volume does increase? Do you have backup suppliers to replenish inventory? Can your current carriers handle an increase in packages?
This thought exercise forces you to solve problems before they occur, which is good practice in staying nimble and able to adapt as the business scales and will enable your busines to leverage the shipping carrier networks to your advantage and to the advantage of your customers.
Just as you looked at your shipping process, you should also look at your carriers. Conduct an audit and analysis of how your carriers are or are not meeting your current needs.
These are just a few questions to get you started: How is their lane performance and on-time delivery rate? Are they providing free packaging materials? Can you schedule pickups, or do you have to go to the post office to ship?
You might find that you’re able to reduce your shipping costs with better carrier strategies. Using a multicarrier strategy is taking the most advantageous parts of each shipping carrier and piecing them together for cheaper, faster delivery. Expanding beyond the largest carriers gets you access to companies that utilize direct induction, zone-skipping, bi-coastal fulfillment and more at a much more cost-friendly price.
There are numerous benefits of using shipping software to organize and streamline ecommerce order fulfillment. If you’re using multiple solutions, however, your process is too complicated. Look instead for a unified software solution that offers all the must-have features like great rates, usability and customer experience improvement.
Shipping rate shopping is one of the most important features to look for, so you can see side by side how much packages will cost to ship with different carriers. The savings may be miniscule, but they add up over time. You also want to be sure the software is easy to use and will fit seamlessly into your existing workflows. There is no point in adopting a software that you won’t even use. Other features to consider are automation, business rules, subscription fees and accountability adding through user profiles.
At the end of the day, a unified software solution will reduce fulfillment errors and help you maintain accurate inventory counts. It’s the secret ingredient to every pro’s recipe to ship like an industry leader.
Packaging is a surprising tool that can define the customer experience. For starters, branded packages can solidify the brand narrative during the post-purchase stage of the customer journey. It is the retailer’s final chance to make an impression.
In today’s eco-conscious landscape, it is equally important to have right-sized packages with minimal protective inclusions. Consumers are averse to excess packaging that leaves a greater carbon footprint and is a hassle to break down and throw away or recycle.
The other benefit of optimal packaging is the cost savings. Right-sizing a package shrinks its total dimensions, which brings down the shipping rate as well. Minimal protective inclusions also mean a lighter package if your carrier factors in weight.
Choose packaging that is the same size as the product being shipped and combine multiple orders whenever possible. It will improve your customers’ experience—and your cash flow.
Is your shopping cart holding you back? Moving shopping carts is not an easy process, but there are systems that make it easier to transfer your order history and customer information from one to another. We don’t recommend a shopping cart change unless there are specific things your current cart doesn’t support that would grow your online sales. If you’re looking for a change, though, there are plenty of options.
New marketplaces like Walmart’s (and others) are worthy competitors of Amazon and are seeing tremendous growth every year. There has also been a recent surge in social shopping, in which consumers buy products directly within social media apps like Instagram without disrupting the browsing experience. Here’s why this matter: Facebook and Instagram stores can be linked to your shipping software, so order information flows directly into the software without you putting forth extra effort.
Soon, you’ll be a multichannel ecommerce seller, expanding your total addressable market and selling to new customers all the time.
As you’re fulfilling orders, track and detail where your shipments are going most often. This key piece of customer data will help you plan for the optimal fulfillment strategy for your business. There are many fulfillment warehouses options that allow you to keep your original operation and simply ship those orders that make sense from the warehouse in another part of the country. The process can be automated, and the reduction in shipping costs will usually pay for the fulfillment fees—so you simply need to keep an eye on where your orders are going to and get an understanding of when you should consider bringing your products closer to your customers.
This can largely be attributed to Amazon Prime, which has 100 million members who enjoy same-day and next-day delivery. Consumer demand for fast fulfillment has skyrocketed, so much so that Walmart added same-day grocery delivery to 1,600 stores and Target has same-day services for several of its product offerings.
The customer journey doesn’t end at the sale. In fact, the sale is just the beginning. The post-checkout experience is just as important as the prospective customer courting because it will determine if the customer comes back to buy from your brand in the future.
One great example of an elevated experience is having access to visual package tracking, protection from porch thieves and proactive communication. Route provides better post-checkout package protection and tracking visibility for online stores and shoppers alike. This eliminates concerns about a package’s location. And if something does happen, Route takes care of it.
Recent research has uncovered that 95% of consumers would make a future purchase from a retailer if they had a positive customer experience, so taking control of the post-checkout activities is sure to result in repeat business.
Returns are the bane of many e-tailer’s experience until they discover how lucrative those returns can be. Convenient ecommerce returns give consumers the confidence to make a purchase, understanding they can easily send it back if it doesn’t work out. More than half the time, that return process will result in another purchase because the customer sees something else, he or she likes.
Offering convenient returns, rather than bogging down your supply chain, can foster business growth and, more importantly, customer satisfaction.
Parcel Consulting was started with a simple mission in mind: Connect end shippers with the best carrier and rate strategy for their needs and the best software options to streamline, automate and improve the accuracy and efficiency of the daily pick, pack, and label-printing process for their business.
We work with many different carriers and software partners, so that we can recommend the best solution based on more than a decade of actual experience with all these providers. Most people, even those experienced in shipping and logistics, are surprised to find out how many new and innovative carriers and software options exist now.
We have been tracking, comparing and evaluating them objectively for more than 10 years and we freely share our personal review of your shipping needs by simply scheduling a phone call or video conference with one of our experienced shipping consultants. We’ve been preparing for this for more than a decade and we’re here to help.
Let’s get to work on the next generation of commerce!
