Optimize Your E-Commerce Shipping with Shipping Platforms

1. Benefits of automated e-commerce shipping
2. Good tracking provides transparency
3. Save time and money with return management of shipping platforms
4. Shipping more sustainably and protecting the environment with the help of shipping platforms
5. Conclusion: How shipping platforms can help you optimize your e-commerce shipping

Satisfied customers through excellent service and increased environmental awareness, resulting in more sales and turnover and all this with simultaneously reduced time - Sounds like magic? But it's not. Well, maybe it is a little bit. We'll show you in this article how to take your e-commerce shipping to the next level and leave the competition in the dust. Are you ready? Let's go!

The e-commerce market is growing rapidly every year: According to Statista, e-commerce turnover in Germany (B2C) is increasing strongly every year.The pandemic has further fueled this and it grew by a whole 23% from 59.2 to 72.8 billion euros from 2019 to 2020. No wonder Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, is the richest man in the world. But not without reason. Bezos has revolutionized and perfected online trading. Because Amazon has mastered the customer experience (Customer Experience) and also all the processes that arise in online trading and the shipping of goods. And that's what it's all about today. We'll show you how you can cut a slice of these well-thought-out methods and use them for your online store.

Because for sustainable success in online trading, the receipt and dispatch of goods is a significant factor. We'll now explain how you can optimize and automate your shipping processes from shipping to tracking to returns.

Benefits of automated e-commerce shipping

The advantages are obvious. Shipping physical goods takes the most time on the part of the merchants: With shipping automation, you cut down the time, reduce your effort and can automate this often annoying task quickly and easily. Returns are a similar topic, and these can cause stress for customers. Nobody wants that, and least of all you as merchants. Here too, everyone involved saves a lot of time. And nerves.

The way to optimize shipping and automate your online store

Since you mainly ship your goods with parcel delivery services (engl. Carrier), it makes sense to consider their solutions and possibilities for optimizing online trading. We will also talk about how multi-carrier shipping can benefit you beyond that and combine the advantages of each delivery company. The first step is integration into your shop or inventory management system to use the services and digital solutions from package delivery companies and multi-carrier platforms. You can also integrate marketplaces like Amazon or eBay into your workflow. Let's take a look at this area:

• Shop systems
• Inventory management systems
• Marketplaces
• Shipping platforms

Using parcel service integrations for your shop system

Parcel services offer an integration for all the common shop systems such as Shopify, Adobe Commerce Cloud, PrestaShop, WooCommerce and beyond. You will find a wealth of online shop and e-commerce systems for easy integration of the services of the shipping service providers. And even if your shop system does not appear in the list, the delivery services also offer solutions for this in the form of interfaces (APIs), web services or developer kits. This allows, for example, changes to the delivery options in the online store's customer account by the customers.

DHL/Deutsche Post offers direct support by simply writing an e-mail to support.webshopintegration@deutschepost.de. Other providers also offer options, at DPD you can find a developer portal, which helps with the integration of shipping solutions, while UPS offers a well-documented Developer Kit. Because the big carriers are committed to supporting all online retailers with their shops.

By integrating into your shop system, shipping labels can then be automatically created, and services and products related to the receipt and shipping of packages can be offered to the customer. One example here is flexible delivery, i.e. delivery to a branch, a storage location or a neighbor. On the one hand, this leads to a better customer experience and saves online retailers a lot of time.

Shipping platforms like Sendcloud offer interfaces to shipping service providers as well as shop systems and marketplaces

Inventory management systems often offer integrations for package delivery services

The inventory management system is also an important part of an online shop - it represents all goods flows of a company and provides information about purchasing and sales as well as goods receipts and releases. As with the shop systems, popular providers are supported. These include Afterbuy, Billbee, Byzo, DreamRobot, JTL, plentysystems and many more. In some cases, the products and services of the carriers are already integrated into these inventory management systems.

Popular marketplaces can also be integrated

Popular marketplaces like Amazon or eBay can also be integrated. Tip: If the carrier does not offer the desired marketplace, this is often also possible via the inventory management system, which often also offer the integration of marketplaces. This saves you a possible own development to integrate the corresponding marketplace.

Why you should use shipping platforms and what their benefits are

To enjoy most of the possibilities, it is best to use a shipping platform with multi-carrier support. If you want to offer several delivery services and services, you use such a platform. This generates a number of advantages:

The customer has the freedom to choose the delivery service, and the best option in terms of price and type of delivery. Sometimes customers also have a preferred company, and so the chance to choose this one also increases. And in terms of environmental protection, you can also add particularly sustainable suppliers for the ordering process. With this, you gain trust and recognition from environmentally conscious customers. We will go into more detail on the subject of environmental protection later in this article.

In any case, the selection increases customer satisfaction again and you have the possibility to easily connect many national and international parcel services.

Good tracking provides transparency

Topic tracking - comprehensive tracking is also conducive to increasing the customer experience alongside transparency.

Many delivery services already offer live tracking or real-time updates, with which customers can determine the time of arrival quite precisely. Thanks to proactive notifications, customers can redirect a package e.g., at DPD even four hours before receipt - to a neighbor, parcel shop, or agreed storage location. Currently, the service of contactless delivery is also very popular, which many parcel services also offer. And it's exactly these great services that set your online store apart from the competition.

And to set yourself even further apart, you can not only offer different parcel services with all their tracking options and extra services through a shipping platform with multi-carrier integration, but there is also the possibility here to personalize the tracking. This means, you can design your own tracking page to reflect the identity and design of your web store. In addition, you have the opportunity to place your own advertising banners to further promote additional products or promotions. And in the personalized tracking mails, you can also apply your after-sales marketing.

Save time and money with return management of shipping platforms

E-commerce merchants know how annoying returns are – not just for the environment. They cost time and money and are not a pleasant experience for either the shop nor the customers. The art is, therefore, to make this process as pleasant as possible, as well as to reduce the time to a minimum that is needed for this.

But this process is also strongly supported by the parties involved in parcel services and shipping logistics systems from the software side. In this context, return slips are automatically sent by e-mail when ordering or upon receipt of the goods.

DPD or DHL offer apps with which you can request the return label with one click. The trick here is that with DHL you don't necessarily have to print out the label, but simply show the QR code in the DHL branch or parcel shop, and the label is printed there. It works similarly with Hermes, if a customer has received a return slip as a QR code, this can also be shown in the parcel shop. Many parcel services also offer the pickup of the return at a chosen address. Returns have never been easier!

Shipping platforms also offer simple return options and advanced return management. Here you can, for example, offer your customers a store credit for further shopping. Further, customers can be courteously informed about the return status as a service, which also reduces the support effort.

If you have a large shipping volume and a corresponding number of returns, there are also multi-carrier platforms where you can set up your own return portal with provided interfaces. Through an analytics dashboard, you are also able to understand which products are being returned for what reason. You can use this valuable information to offer better products and to better meet the wishes of your customers.

Bonus tip:

The Sendcloud study “E-Commerce Delivery Compass” found out that most buyers first check the return conditions before making a purchase decision. This means: Be transparent and show simply and clearly what conditions apply in your online shop. Also, an easy return process naturally leads to a positive customer experience here. And this can in turn result in more purchases, positive ratings or recommendations.

Shipping more sustainably and protecting the environment with the help of shipping platforms

Where we just addressed the topic of environmental sustainability in regards to returns: Sustainability permeates all areas, not just mail order. And this is becoming increasingly important for consumers and thus also plays a role in the purchase decision. Offer parcel services that ship climate-neutral and use environmentally friendly packaging.

Feel free to address these topics and inform customers as well as businesses that want to protect and preserve the climate. The “DHL GoGreen” program, for example, includes the consistent expansion of electric mobility. GLS's “ClimateProtect” compensates for caused greenhouse gases for CO2-neutral shipping, supporting climate projects in addition to environmentally friendly transport and investing in sustainable energy supply.

Within the framework of “EarthSmart”, FedEx relies on renewable energies in their operations and on particularly environmentally friendly packaging and UPS, in turn, supports reforestation projects.

And again, the added value of a shipping platform comes into play here. By offering multiple parcel services and presenting their efforts for a climate-neutral shipment, environmentally conscious consumers can specifically choose the measures they want to support most. You give them a good feeling as well as a good conscience and in return, the trust in your online shop and your brand increases.

And here the service does not stop. If you use the integration of several parcel delivery companies in your own online shop, you can also include particularly eco-friendly providers such as the company “Fairsenden” to take the customer service a step higher. Fairsenden is an emission-free delivery service for your last mile and ensures fair working conditions. This means your online shop also makes a small contribution to social responsibility (keyword: Corporate Social Responsibility). Consumers love that.

Bonus tip:

Add Deutsche Post to your shipping portfolio. They are not only practical and cheap, but also environmentally friendly. Small-format shipments for mailboxes are already successful on the first delivery attempt. You protect the environment, reduce packaging material and the price is lower than any package. Win-Win-Win.

Conclusion: How shipping platforms can help you optimize your e-commerce shipping

To be successful in e-commerce, flexibility and the ability to adapt the strategy to the respective target group are required. A high level of customer service is characterized by the fact that customers have the option to choose the best and best suited service - be it in the form of dynamic shipping costs, multiple shipping options or the decision for more sustainability and environmental protection.

Use the possibilities that shipping platforms offer you and make your e-commerce everyday life as well as the experience for your loyal clientele easier.