All e-commerce leaders want to see their businesses grow. That requires a shipping solution that can not only keep up with the challenges growth can create, but also help e-commerce businesses unlock new benefits as they expand.
Choosing a shipping solution designed with the needs of e-commerce businesses in mind can help leaders scale their businesses with minimal disruptions to their workflows. A scalable shipping solution offers e-commerce businesses the integrations, insights, and customizability they need to optimize costs and keep up with higher order volumes as they grow.
Integrations
Whether they’re shipping five packages per month or 5,000 (or more), e-commerce businesses need clear visibility into orders. That can be challenging to achieve without using a shipping solution that offers integrations to those businesses’ shipping carriers, e-commerce platforms, and IT systems.
For example, ShipAccel, a one-stop shipping solution powered by Pitney Bowes, integrates with 80-plus partners to meet e-commerce businesses’ shipping needs.
“Whether our customers need to connect to Shopify, Amazon, eBay, or any of our other partners, they’re able to connect their stores and import all of their orders,” said Gitika Jain, vice president, shipping portfolio at ShipAccel powered by Pitney Bowes. “With everything streamlined into one place, e-commerce businesses can see all of their orders and ship them from a single app.”
Customizability
E-commerce businesses’ internal workflows tend to become more complex as they grow — with multi-location businesses having different needs and processes than smaller ones. The right e-commerce shipping solution can offer businesses of all sizes the ability to use customized automation rules to rise to their changing needs.
In shipping scenarios, automation rules enable e-commerce businesses to use if-then logic to create “catchall” rules ensuring similar orders are all handled the same way.
“If you regularly ship to international destinations — like Canada, for example — you can use automation rules to ensure your international orders are always shipped using a specific carrier and service that offers the most optimal cost and SLA for your international shipping needs,” said Jain. “There are many business rules you can use to ensure your shipping approach is customized for each and every order and streamlines how your operations work.”
Other customization opportunities can help e-commerce businesses ensure their brands remain top-of-mind for customers throughout their entire shopping journeys — even into returns. Using ShipAccel, for example, enables e-commerce businesses to create branded return experiences for their customers, complete with branded tracking features built into their business’ websites.
Insights
The right e-commerce shipping solution can also empower business leaders with analytics and insights that help them identify and take action on cost optimization opportunities.
For example, “If you have multiple locations and need to see which warehouses you are shipping from the most, or which ones have the highest shipping costs, analytics will help you identify shipping cost optimizations,” Jain said. “These insights are critical to make informed decisions about your operations and spotting cost-cutting opportunities.”
Those informed decisions could range from opening up a new warehouse in a high-volume location to negotiating new rates with a carrier.
Conclusion
When it comes to shipping rates at large, some smaller e-commerce businesses might benefit from the group rates available from a shipping solution whereas larger businesses might already have specialized rate cards. Ideally, their shipping solution should be able to support them in either scenario.
Ultimately, e-commerce businesses have many options when it comes to which shipping partner they choose. But working with one that can remain a partner throughout their entire growth trajectory can help them minimize costs, avoid workflow disruptions, and keep their operations streamlined over time.
“While you can have any shipping solution at any point in your journey, having one that can seamlessly partner with you through every stage of your company’s growth and success is imperative,” Jain said.
ShipAccel, powered by Pitney Bowes, is the one-stop shipping solution for e-commerce businesses. Learn how working with ShipAccel can help you save on rates, automate your workflow, and supercharge your growth at Shipaccel.com.
