5 Ways To Make Ecommerce Shipping More Efficient

As the ecommerce landscape continues to evolve, companies need more than just the ideal product selection and a user-friendly storefront to facilitate continued growth. To earn the loyalty of your customers and surpass the competition, you need to deliver a top-notch end-to-end experience.

That means, you need an efficient and optimised shipping strategy. Upgrading your shipping strategy and finding ways to eliminate roadblocks in the logistics process ensures you can adhere to growing expectations among customers for faster delivery rates. After all, we’re living in a world where many consumers have become accustomed to one-day and two-day delivery options.

Plus, a more efficient shipping strategy can help reduce your operational costs, eliminating risks, roadblocks, and issues that harm business cash flow.

Here’s how you can make your ecommerce shipping strategy more efficient.

5 Ways to Improve Ecommerce Shipping Efficiency

While there are various ways you can enhance your shipping strategies, from hiring skilled team members to rethinking your packaging processes, the most effective results often come from implementing the right technology.

According to McKinsey, early adopters of digital transformation in the supply chain and logistics space reduce logistics costs by 15% and improve service levels by 65%. Here are our top tips for using technology and strategy to unlock better shipping results.

1.Partner with a Digital Freight Forwarder

Navigating the complex world of ecommerce shipping, particularly as your company expands into global markets, isn’t easy. Many smaller companies struggle to expand because it’s difficult to choose the right shipping carriers based on their priorities and budgets, or don’t know how to prepare the right documents for an international shipment.

Partnering with a digital freight forwarder can help you overcome these issues. Digital freight forwarders give businesses a comprehensive platform and human support team that they can access for help in managing complex processes, such as the customs clearance process. In addition to offering customs clearance services, digital freight forwarders help business owners track import duties and create digital documents, which can be significantly more beneficial than spending loads of time filling out physical paperwork.

The platforms can also offer real-time insights into carrier rates and shipping options, helping companies make better decisions based on their budgets and requirements. For instance, you could compare carriers based on how quickly they can deliver items to a specific destination or how affordable their services are.

2.Connect Ecommerce Platforms to Logistics Tools

One of the easiest ways to make your shipping processes more efficient is to align all of the various tools you use to manage logistics throughout your organisation with your ecommerce platform. Integrating your ecommerce solution with inventory management tools, for instance, will help you track product sales, prepare for peaks in customer demand, and avoid stock-outs.

Connecting your platform to an order tracking system allows you to improve customer experiences by giving buyers a way to track where their products are at any given time. Some of these tools can even integrate with email and SMS automation tools to provide customers with instant order updates and notifications.

You could even link your ecommerce platform with warehouse management software, making it easier to organise your employees and distribution centres and provide staff with up-to-date insights. Many ecommerce platforms already offer one-click integrations with these tools, but you can also use APIs and webhooks to align your technology stack.

3.Invest in Automation

Once you’ve aligned all of the tools you use to manage your fulfilment process, supply chain, and partners, the next step is finding ways to reduce manual work for your team. Workflow automation solutions can put multiple stages of your delivery process on “autopilot”.

For instance, you might use automated workflows to rapidly deliver order information from your ecommerce platform to your warehouse management tools, ensuring teams can rapidly pick and package goods, without having to wait for manual input.

Automation can also save your teams time on various repetitive tasks, such as updating inventory data, sending requests to suppliers when inventory levels run low for certain stock, or informing customers about a change to their order status. This all means your team has more time to focus on valuable tasks, such as interacting with partners or answering customer questions.

4.Use AI to Your Advantage

Similar to automation, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly valuable in the shipping and logistics landscape. Many leaders in the ecommerce world already use AI for various use cases. For instance, by leveraging historical and real-time data, AI tools can help companies:

• Optimise shipping routes: AI solutions can consider a range of factors in the shipping landscape to detect the best route for cargo based on a company’s budget and goals. It can even alert companies of inclement weather conditions and disruptions that may cause shipping delays, allowing them to adjust routes in real-time.
• Enhance inventory strategies: Based on historical data, AI tools can predict when demand for certain products will increase or when congestion in the logistics landscape may occur, enabling you to develop better plans that help avoid slow delivery speeds and lost opportunities caused by stock-outs.
• Improve shipment safety: Cutting-edge logistics companies and carriers can also use AI to improve package safety. For instance, AI camera systems can help minimise collision risks, detect threats on a container carrier (like fire or flood risks), and monitor the movement of team members to reduce the risk of theft.

 

5.Become More Data Driven

Finally, one of the best ways to improve the efficiency of your shipping strategy, while also improving customer experiences and reducing costs, is to become more data-driven. Gathering data from your supply chain, logistics processes, and customers can help you identify ways to reduce shipping costs, mitigate common problems, and improve customer satisfaction.

Monitoring order fulfilment speeds, accuracy, and performance in your warehouse and distribution centres will help you determine if your teams are working effectively. Tracking the number of returns you get or complaints from customers will help you pinpoint problems that could be leading to customer churn or harming your chances of future conversions.

Leverage the reports and metrics available on all of the digital tools you use to make informed decisions for the growth of your ecommerce company.

Make Ecommerce Shipping More Efficient

An efficient and optimised ecommerce shipping strategy isn’t just crucial to improving your relationships with customers and increasing conversions. It’s also the key to keeping costs low in your organisation, making the most of your resources, and paving the way for continued growth.

With a combination of technology, strategy, and analytical processes, you can take your shipping strategy to the next level, differentiate yourself from the competition, and boost your profits.

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