No wonder shipping software is in demand in the eCommerce industry. But still, many don’t know the benefits of this software. They continue with traditional methods and end up compromising their sales. Yes, if you don’t provide a fast and seamless experience to users, your profit margin can suffer. Understandably, handling shipping is not as exciting as other eCommerce aspects like product development, marketing, sales, branding, etc. But managing the shipping with efficiency is very important for your eCommerce business to thrive. Shipping software can take care of it efficiently, provided you choose the right one for your business. It will help your customers continue buying from you due to hassle-free deliveries, easy returns, flexible options, and much more. Let’s discuss what shipping software is and how it can help your business.
What is Shipping Software?
Shipping software is a tool that allows eCommerce businesses to integrate with different shipping companies like FedEx, DHL, etc., and enables effortless shipping and order management. It can automate and streamline shipping services and delivery processes that people used to handle previously by manual means. In addition, the software can identify shipping-related issues and address challenges. Apart from choosing shipping providers, you can also use different shipping methods and rates. Some of the common shipping methods are:
Regular shipping, which takes 5-7 days, and the customers don’t need to pay extra Same-day or 2-day shipping, which needs customers to pay extra for faster delivery Overnight shipping, which is rare and comes with an extra cost
Other shipping methods are international shipping, expedited shipping, air, ground, or weight-based shipping. Many shipping software solutions also offer more services like storage, packaging, picking, and postage apart from shipping. Furthermore, you can opt for different shipping rates, such as flat rate shipping with a fixed cost for similar orders in terms of distance and weight. You can also go for real-time carrier charges where the cost is displayed during checkout based on distance, weight, etc. Besides, you can go for free shipping that costs no shipping charges for customers and helps increase your conversion rates and reduces cart abandonment.
Why does an eCommerce business need a shipping solution?
Whether you have an enterprise or small business, you need shipping software to manage the shipping efficiently, reduce churn rates, and increase customers’ convenience. According to statistics, 76% of customers in the US described fast shipping as the biggest factor for the online shopping experience. Hence, you need to consider all these things in mind and choose a shipping software that can help provide a better user experience. Many benefits are associated with the software, such as:
Faster shipping to attract more customersYou can sell worldwide wherever you want, or your customers areMore delivery options like cost and shipping duration to increase customer’s convenienceChoice of carriers like USPS, UPS, DHL, FedEx, and othersYou can gather feedback to improve your servicesEasy returns to keep your customers happy and encourage them to buy from you without any worries or hasslesChoice of pickup points for deliveries and returns according to customers’ needs to further increase their convenienceDelivery process automation in the software saves you from performing repetitive tasks and lets you dedicate more time figuring out how to provide the best possible experience to customers and make strategies.
How to choose shipping software?
Although most features and benefits of shipping software are similar, there are still differences. Hence, choose the software based on the unique requirements of your business.
Shipping volume
Think about your shipping volume in a month. Now, compare the pricing of each shipping solution based on how much shipping volume it allows in a month. It will help you shortlist the right software according to your budget that does not seem to be a financial overhead for your business.
Serviceability
Check whether the shipping software operates in the area(s) where your business requires. It’s about your customers, so you need to choose the shipping software that serves them. Otherwise, there would be no point in choosing it.
Features
Consider your business needs, customers’ expectations, and profit margin to choose the shipping software that can offer features complementing these attributes. Features like tracking management, printing shipping labels, email notifications can be common in different shipping software. But you can also avail of advanced features like dropshipping, inventory management, etc., if your business requires them. The key is to choose the software with features useful for your business, nothing less or more.
Ease of use
The shipping software you choose must be easy to use by everyone in your team, regardless of their technical skills. It must feature a clear dashboard with all the detailed information on orders, shipment, fulfillment, inventory, etc., to grab necessary details at a glance. In addition, it must allow integration with other tools your team uses to boost their productivity, instead of wasting time switching multiple tools.
Customer support
Customer support plays a vital role as issues may surface at any time. Therefore, choose shipping software that offers excellent support by different means like calls, chat, emails, etc. They must have an easy-to-understand knowledge base to address common questions so users can help themselves. So, if you are ready, let’s look at some of the best shipping software in the market.
Easyship
Are you running an eCommerce business but confused about which shipping partner to choose? Try this powerful shipping software – Easyship – built to help you grow your business, save money, delight customers, save time, etc. This cloud shipping software lets you filter your search by the fastest, best value, cheapest, etc. Easyship offers a tracking and shipping experience at an affordable price compared to courier companies that charge so much for a single package. It will show you 250+ courier services from DHL, UPS, USPS, and more so that you can save up to 89% of the package rate you want to send to your customers. Easyship integrates with leading international couriers, allowing you to boost revenue via selling worldwide. Manage everything from shipping a product, generating labels, comparing quotes, monitoring finances, scheduling return pickups from a single tool, and automating your shipping needs. In addition, their shipping consultants will tailor a perfect strategy to fulfill your business requirements. Enhance customer experience by providing them with all the details from the time you receive the orders to delivering a package that includes sharing the tracking id of the shipment to their emails or SMS. Easyship has a solution for all business types to spend a minimum on shipping and growing their revenue more. Whether you are a startup or an established business, Easyship solution is perfect for every need. For startups, it comes with a free plan where you can ship 100 packages every month. When you grow your business, you can go for a paid plan for increasing the shipments limits.
Shippo
Ship smarter with Shippo shipping software and grow your eCommerce business. It provides you best rates possible from top couriers and allows you to manage everything to get a better shipping experience in a single place. Shippo connects with many courier services like FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS, and more. Connect your store to sync your sales channels so that you can easily manage your orders. Keep your customers up-to-date and send them notifications and tracking details. Generate print labels for shipping as well as for return automatically for free. Shippo partners with dozens of top store platforms and 85+ global carriers so that you do not have to integrate anything and start your work immediately. Get your shipping software that has everything for you to give you a professional-level shipping experience and deep discounts for free. For automation workflows and batches, you can go with higher plans starting from $10/month and take a free trial of 30 days.
ShipStation
If you are looking for affordable, easier, and quicker shipping software, then you don’t have to think twice. Grow your business with ShipStation that offers branded returns portal, branded tracking pages, custom emails or packing slips templates, and SMS tracking updates. The automated features allow order fulfillment and shipping workflow, such as scan-based workflows. It also offers automatic shipping, tag orders, and bulk print labels in batches. The software supports multi-package and splits shipping making it easy for business owners to keep track of orders. ShipStation is integrated with managing orders, selling products, planning the company’s resources and can be covered easily by the tool from fulfillment partners and carriers. It can be challenging to track in-transit shipments if users are not using a reliable tool. Additionally, one can manage the logistics and fulfillment of every load and create end-of-day forms, view multi-channel product analysis and shipping, manage products, inventory levels, and schedule carrier pickups. The tool works on the scan-based workflow that offers automation processes and bulk updates. Also, it imports orders from several selling channels, IMS, CRMs, ERPs, and marketplaces with automatic shipping configurations. It can send tracking details instantly to customers and selling channels. The tool also compares the prices of print labels and carriers up to 500.
Shopify
Send your products using simple tools that scale with eCommerce business and save up to 88% on shipping with Shopify shipping. It helps you fulfill every order faster by buying and printing shipping labels to prepare the packages in advance. Manage everything in one place, including products, inventory, and customers, and fulfill your day-to-day orders faster. Start quickly with Shopify shipping by skipping the setup process, define default rates during checkout, and prepare your packages without any special pieces of equipment. Streamline your shipping tasks from fulfilling orders to creating USPS SCAN Forms and arranging pickups with DHL and UPS. Whatever the carrier is, you can track every shipment which is accessible through Shopify. Manage your shipping costs on the same bill you take during subscriptions. In addition, offer your customer discounts during checkout, such as free shipping fees, etc. You can also protect your shipments by adding insurance coverage at the time of buying shipping labels. Be always ready for international shipping with discounts and built-in custom forms. Try Shopify for 14 days, learn about the services it offers, and choose a perfect plan.
ShippingEasy
Set up ShippingEasy in minutes and save your time on shipping. It is a powerful shipping software that helps you grow your business, access discounted UPS and USPS shipping rates, and print the labels in no time. Whether you sell on a marketplace, in multiple places, or on your website, ShippingEasy keeps all the records in a single place so that you can ship cheaper and faster. It integrates with many eCommerce platforms to import orders from the sites you sell. Additionally, you can automate the process to spend more time on your products to attract more customers. ShippingEasy saves your money on UPS and USPS labels to create a bottom line and invest in your eCommerce business. With the intuitive interface, you can quickly get everything to start immediately. Reclaim your customers with a better service and brand your entire shipping process by customized emails, logos on labels, and branded tracking with social media and web links. Manage your product via product catalog support, product image support, assign product categories, product bar-code support, etc. In addition, get options like combine, split, and recombine orders, view product images, digital and physical orders, arrange order columns, edit orders, categorize orders, and more for order management. ShippingEasy integrates with unlimited shopping carts and marketplaces, such as Quickbooks, Public API, Inventory Management, Listing engines, and EDI so that you have everything you want to register higher growth. The price for shipping 50 shipments every month is $5/month. Choose your plan according to your shipping needs and take a 30-days free trial.
Shippit
Shippit is a shipping software that saves money and time and gives a fantastic experience to your customers. It is a cloud-based multiple carrier shipping software that fulfills your orders and allows you to track your shipments at any time from anywhere. Whether you have an enterprise or a small startup, Shippit powers a more straightforward delivery process by providing different options you need to ship with ease. Offer multiple delivery options during checkout to convert more sales and utilize automated shipping and decent packaging so that your customer never questions the process. In addition, inform your customers of every detail, from shipping to sharing tracking details over their emails or phone. To get started, you need to create an account by giving store details and email addresses, connecting your single or multiple stores via easy-to-setup extensions, and start shipping with pre-negotiated rates. Grow your online business at a starting price of $49/month and avail yourself of a 30-days free trial.
EasyPost
Save up to 74% with the complete shipping solution that includes Tracking API, Address Verification API, and Shipping API for FedEx, DHL, UPS, USPS, and many more with EasyPost. It offers multiple carrier access through a single integration and lets you improve your delivery process and save money on every shipment. Enter the package details in EasyPost’s Create Label tool that helps you to print labels fast. Furthermore, get real-time updates about the shipping via webhook notifications and custom branded tracking pages. You can also confirm the international and domestic addresses’ accuracy to enhance deliverability. Protect the packages against loss, theft, or damage across every carrier, country, and service level. Besides, the built-in Shipping APIs offer end-to-end flexibility so that you can control logistics processes and parcel shipping for fulfillment centers, marketplaces, enterprises, eCommerce retailers, etc. Get 1,20,000 shipments free every year to grow your business. And if you want more, go for custom pricing by defining your requirements.
ShipBob
Ship your products with a global logistics platform, ShipBob, and become a successful eCommerce business owner by delivering customer’s orders fast. ShipBob connects with technologies to expand its network to improve transit times, delivery expectations, and shipping costs for your customers. Now, you can increase your order value by 97% by bringing 13% cost savings to your bottom lines. With an effortless shipping process, you can reduce the rate of cart abandonment by 18%. Save hours on the job by choosing the right shipping software like ShipBob for your eCommerce business. ShipBob also guarantees 99.95% accuracy in completing orders. Allow the software to connect with your store to import your products and manage your inventory in various combinations of fulfillment centers. Once you receive an order, the product ships from the nearest fulfillment center to experience a fast delivery. Moreover, ShipBob provides affordable two-day shipping, easy-to-understand pricing, a vast range of fulfillment services, transparency of performance, and other services so that you can focus on other necessary areas.
ShipWorks
eCommerce merchants and warehouses can use ShipWorks as shipping software for high-volume to manage costs, unlock efficiency, ship smarter, and automate processes. The cloud and hybrid on-premise solution has several features such as scan to ship, batch processing, intelligent order routing, and customizable automation. The shipping software keeps details of error-reducing and automated workflow that saves money and time. It comes with 100+ built-in integration, robust ODBC capabilities, and native APIs such as the systems, WMS, ERPs, and other channels. The shipping software can optimize and streamline shipping while connecting with the brands.
ShippyPro
Get the easiest way to track, ship, and return your orders with ShippyPro. It offers powerful products for eCommerce businesses and lets you track your package from shipping to delivery. You can set up your account within 30 seconds and start managing your shipments efficiently. Manage, import, and produce carrier labels for your shipments for an easy scan shipping process. ShippyPro allows you to manage orders as well as returns, all in a single place. Turn your every delivery into a new opportunity for the next sale. Shippy Pro integrates with many eCommerce platforms, shipping partners, and marketplaces. This shipping API allows you to sync your website and online store to import your orders automatically. It also lets you save time and money and decrease errors in transcription. Besides, you can offer multiple delivery options along with the rates during checkout. Try Shippy Pro with 30 orders for 30 days and grow sales. For fast-growing companies, professionals, and enterprise-grade companies, ShippyPro has many features at affordable plans.
Conclusion 👨🏫
Customer satisfaction is essential for every business. You can increase customer satisfaction by using shipping software to help you manage shipping processes efficiently and delight customers with fast delivery. Thus, choose suitable shipping software based on your business requirements and budget and start availing of its benefits. You may also be interested in: Start Selling Online in a Day with these 13 Platforms.
