As a small business owner, there is so much you need to know about different categories to successfully run your business. For businesses that sell and ship physical products, the shipping process can be overwhelming. There are countless companies out there offering shipping solutions, each claiming to be the answer to your problems.
At Right On Tech, we come across many companies with issues in their shipping process. Some companies are doing things manually that could be automated, some companies are stuck in old ways, and other companies and merely partnering with the wrong providers for their needs.
In this article, we have put together the main things you need to know to streamline the shipping process for your company
Order Fulfilment
Many companies are moving in the direction of third-party logistics providers to which they outsource the management of warehousing, fulfillment, and shipping. Working with these third-party solutions can be a good fit for some companies depending on their volume, but it isn’t the ideal solution for all companies. Many factors go into deciding whether or not this is a good fit. Things that should be considered include; sales volume, fees, price of items, shipping rates, and of course, profits. For new companies or companies with small volumes, it is best to keep order processing in-house. The same goes for companies with very large volumes as they may not want to have to pay the fees associated with all of the orders received. Companies that decide to keep their fulfillment in-house should make efforts to fulfill orders with 100% accuracy; this is especially important for newer companies trying to establish themselves
In-house Shipping
There are countless shipping programs available now for e-commerce businesses. For any new companies just setting up their shipping process, the first thing you will want to do is to create an account on Stamps.com. Doing so gives you access to a range of shipping options from first class to priority options. The next account you will want to set up is with Shipstation.com. Shipstation is a shipping platform that offers an inexpensive way to manage your order fulfillment. The best thing about ShipStation is that it can easily be used with any of the top e-commerce platforms and shopping carts, and integrated with countless selling channels.
Possibilities In Automation
Companies should consider automating wherever possible to cut down on costs. A significant benefit of using Shipstation is the automation that is offered. One of these automation options allows you to create templates for orders to dictate how you want specific types of orders or products to be processed. With this solution, you can easily manage your packing slips and shipping labels to make your shipping as easy as possible.
Sales Channels
Companies that sell physical products are no longer limiting their sales to just their websites; there are now so many sales channels to sell products on. However, expanding to more sales channels can often complicate order processing. Our Right On Tech team is very experienced in helping companies streamline their shipping and fulfillment process while working with a large variety of sales channels. Sales Channels include marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and many others, and each one of these channels will have different ways in which orders are processed. With ShipStation and Right On Tech, your shipping process can stop being something you dread.
Big Box
The goal of many business owners is to get their products sold by big-box retailers, but this can present many challenges. Creating relationships with department stores and buyers is never easy, but this is only the beginning of a complicated process. Each of the department stores or channels you partner with will have very different rules and requirements. Some smaller channels are very relaxed and allow you to include your own packing slip and control much of the process. On the other hand, there are channels you will partner with that will have very strict requirements for shipping; a certain kind of packaging, packing slips, and shipping labels must look a certain way, and items must be packed in a specific way.
Shipping Labels and Packing Slips
While ShipStation offers excellent features for personalizing packing slips and labels, it doesn’t currently provide a way to generate the exact packing slips required by some of these online retailers. This issue can often mean that companies have to spend additional time and resources double printing packing slips from multiple sources. At Right On Tech, we have been working with e-commerce companies for many years, and we have the experience required to create and automate these packing slips and shipping labels to meet the requirements.
CommerceHub Integration
While ShipStation offers a vast range of integrations, it currently does not provide integration for CommerceHub. For companies that use both ShipStation and CommerceHub, this can mean a lot of manual data entry on a daily basis. This daily manual data entry means employee hours are being used for something that can be automated/integrated with the help of Right On Tech.
Our team can help you bridge the gap between ShipStation and CommerceHub and eliminate manual data entry.
Right On Tech can help you with your CommerceHub connection and with all of the other leading big-box retailers. We understand the strict EDI requirements and can provide solutions that make your day-to-day business easier.
Partners
As a ShipStation partner, Right On Tech can help you with all of your integrations, packing slips, and shipping labels. We also offer solutions for your e-commerce platforms, websites, ERP systems, and much more. Contact us for additional information or assistance with your e-commerce business.
